Faith and food

Netnet Camomot

RAINY days and Mondays… But a low pressure area on a Thursday morning—ugh. Not in the middle of the week, please. And not on Monday, Friday, Saturday. A rainy Sunday is the best, one wakes up with the sound of rain, sleeps with the sound of rain—perfect for the tired bones.

Yesterday was supposed to be “Justice League” day. For me, anyway. No, there’s no non-working holiday especially declared for the movie. But Thursday would be the best time to watch it since Fridays have traffic, weekends can mean the favorite cinema seat is not available, Mondays are hectic with no energy left for movies, Tuesday is for the unaccomplished items in Monday’s to-do list, by Wednesday when cinemas have changed their schedules but with “Justice League” of course extended, the wannabe audience has already heard, watched, and read all the spoiler alerts, so, what’s there to watch?

But the one who dares to go downtown on a rainy day in Cagayan de Oro is the bravest of all. If threats of flood can’t stop him from watching a movie in one of the cinemas downtown, nothing will.

In the ’90s, we watched a movie at Limketkai Mall, and it was only after, when we were outside that we realized the whole center was already flooded. Yes, those floods were already happening even in the 20th century.

Rain evokes cravings for hot choco, strawberry-jam-and-cheese sandwiches, staring at the trees outside the window from the room with a view. Its sound lulls you to sleep, until you remember there’s a deadline to meet for this column and for work.

People usually presume that I eat, sleep, and go malling the whole day. All these fats—spare tires, double chin, cottage-cheese thighs, logs in lieu of legs, huge upper arms, mile-wide hips—must be the evidence that make these people conclude I do nothing.

Well, I play Homescapes, Gardenscapes, and Candy Crush Soda Saga—is that doing nothing?

Each of us deserves a time to stare at those trees before the eyesight or the trees can fade away. Striving for more—more money, more power—can be disastrous to one’s health, that’s why a doctor’s prescription always includes an order to relax, to deal with pressure in the kindest of ways, and to remain calm all the time despite the sh*t that life gives.

“This too shall pass”—Urban Dictionary describes this as “a proverb indicating that all material conditions, positive or negative, are temporary.”

So, this too shall pass—the rain, even the Sun although it never disappears, it’s there all the time but hidden behind clouds or replaced by the Moon as Earth rotates.

I recently won a tiny succulent in a contest. We were asked to mime “full” and of course my fats cooperated—easy. If the challenge were to mime “empty,” I could have shown them my minute brain.

The only green part in me is my mind. But when plants are morphing to gifts or prizes, who am I to say no? The green thumb now has to keep up with the greenness of the mind.

The succulent needs early-morning Sun whose rays may not strike the same area each day. The moment I wake up, I’m already looking for those rays for the succulent to bask in, and this can be a hide-and-seek thing: Oh, there’s the Sun! Oh, it’s gone! Oh, it’s over there! All that for this teeny weeny succulent in a cute white pot called “Faith.” For yesterday morning, however, no Sun at all.

The host wanted to give me the pot called “Love” so I could finally find the love of my life—haha! But I always choose faith if there’s a multiple choice.

Once upon a time, at the height of a worst moment, an aunt asked me how I was coping. My reply: Faith! I was on my way to get food for her and her mom, and that’s when I remembered one more thing: Food!

Faith and food. There’s this four-letter word that also starts with F, but had I included that in my reply, the aunt and grandaunt would have gasped: Que horror!

Three Fs? Hmmm. Two Fs only—it’s not complicated.

Faith helps us believe in a superhero who can save us from sh*t. Most of the time, that superhero is you, me, our own self, and this thought even has a meme: “No one is you. And that is your super power.”

“Rainy days and Mondays always get me down”? Whew. There’s always another day to watch “Justice League.”