"How are you?"

I have been too preoccupied with other things to actually write the past couple of days although like always, I had a ton of things I wanted to write about.  I just chose to vegetate and just “be”, somethng BFF Fe had been encouraging me to do.  Not that I wasn’t doing anything at all — I just chose to channel my energy differently.  Or not at all.  (Plus, Angry Birds has gotten my attention piqued again…)

But sometime during the latter part of the week, something uncanny happened when I received separate e-mails from two friends half a world away—  totally unrelated —  asking me the question I chose as the title of this blogpost: “How are you?”…  One was favorite goddaughter Eeya who is now teaching in Singapore, and the other from long time BFF from high school Ces who is based in Manila.  Both were heartwarming “hellos” which brought a smile to my face and to my heart.  It took me a while to answer their e-mails, although I promised to write more.

There are those e-mails (like the ones from work) which we tend to answer in a rote fashion, and there are those e-mails which make us pause and think about what we want to write about because we just have so much to say.   And between Ces and me, we have always picked up from long stretches of silence as if we were just talking yesterday.  A pick-me-up in the form of a question.. which is a “hello” extended by two words.

Even now as I try to write about it, answering the question leaves me stumped for words — because I literally don’t know where to start.

I’m doing okay.  

Summer’s here so the heat is unbearable but after 12 years, I’ve learned to live with it.  I literally hit the 12th anniversary of my arrival here in the proverbial land of milk and honey last June 29.  In terms of years, that’s more than a quarter of my total existence on the face of this earth.

I had reconnected with Ces just before I left Manila in 2000, and have since seen her during most of the trips home, particularly the last four.  She is always on my list of people I announce a planned (and subsequently a confirmed) trip home to, and again one of the few I see more than once.  (Or try to.)  Eeya, for her part, was “ninang-less” from after her baptism (which was when we officially met) up to my homecoming say 4 or 5 trips ago…I missed her these last two trips because she left for Singapore last December.

Things panned out back home and our family dilemma has been solved.  So the trip last March was well worth the effort, time and money, and mommy can rest easy.  Two years after Dad passed, we’re still tying up some loose ends, but we’re getting things ironed out one at a time.

I’ll write more soon.

Although “soon” can be relative. =)

It struck me that we often find ourselves thinking of other people who mean something to us, but who we leave at that:  as just a thought.  I hate to admit that I’m guilty of not typing an e-mail hello or writing a missive like I am wont to do most times even when I think of how a friend is doing.  It makes me wonder about missed chances to reconnect or to simply put a smile on someone else’s face.  No matter how good things may be going on the other side of the fence, one can never get enough good tidings, don’t you agree?  In fact I just found a “stale” card I had meant to mail to P which I will get on its way today.  (Have to keep the postal service busy before they become obsolete.)

Thanks, Ces and Eeya, for the warm hug to the heart.  

My turn to ask, how are you?