Hospital Reflections

My mom got hospitalized last week because of a knee injury. Nothing serious but she was confined to the hospital for almost four days to allow her knee to heal before we could go home. I stayed with her in the hospital and asked my brother to bring my laptop along with my work files so I can work from there.

The experience was quite enlightening. As my mom put it: The last time she was confined in a hospital was when I was born 31 years ago. For some people this might not be a big deal but for me it is. Save for when my dad had laser surgery on his eyes when I was in high school my parents were never really sick and now that they have gone old and the arthritis and all that has started showing their signs I suddenly feel that there is an urgency for us siblings to excel in our own personal lives for a number of different reasons. For me the main reasons are:

1. My parents worked hard for us. We were never rich but we were empowered to do the things that we wanted to do at an early age. Even with limited resources way back then my parents (Manay included) made sure that I had art materials always ready for when I had the urge to draw. I feel that at this stage in my life the best way to honor them is to be really really good at what I do so they will know how much their work has impacted mine.
2. They are getting older and we need to be in a better financial situation so that we can take better care of them when they retire. This means getting better at our craft and taking care of our own businesses.
3. To start a family sooner so my parents can enjoy their grandkids more the way they are enjoying Bella and Enzo right now.

I guess what I am really trying to say is that I really won the parent lottery when I was born and I wish I could do more for them right now. My parents were never perfect but they were really awesome for me and they were very much involved in everything that we siblings did and the best way to honor them is to show them the fruits of their labor: That we've grown up able to take care of them the way they were able to look after us using the skills they allowed us to cultivate.