The Husband is About to Abandon His Family

                     By Vic Odarve

After a year of their marriage, the couple picture seems so dark. A little disagreement over simple mistakes blown into a huge confrontation. In most of their fierce quarrels, neither one of them seems to adjust and relax into a cooler head. Fortunately, two times the husband was nearly hit by a gleaming knife hurled by his wife. He thought that the previous quarrels were merely brought by the pregnancy period of his wife. “But now the child is a year old and she did the knife for the third time, I had to leave this house before it is too late,” he said. 

Couple in Quarrel

Hence, the husband planned to abandon her wife. He devoted a week preparing bags properly packed with clothes and personal belongings but keeping away from the eyes of his wife. 

The time he waited for finally came. After attending a birthday party in one of their neighbors and going home late in the night, his wife and the child were falling asleep early. Sensing that the wife in deep sleeping, the husband slowly stood up and got the prepared packed bags at the corner room. “It was the time to leave this house,” he thought to himself. It was around 1:30 am but as he was about to close the door and fled the house, the child was awakened and said, “Daddy, daddy?”. He immediately put back his bag in a room and return and cuddle his baby before his wife woke up. “Oh my God. I can’t leave,” he told himself. The baby was still in his arm sleeping till the early morning of the day. He was vastly devastated. He was not able to leave the house secretly as planned. 

Have a Moment with Grandchildren

 Since that time, he realized that the pivotal moment he planned to leave her wife, the charming picture of this baby girl played back and forth on his conscious mind. Then ultimately, he also realized he had no other more preferred option other than to exercise patience with his wife as a couple, though at odds sometimes. Years had passed and his young girl turns into a woman and a good skilled nurse working as OFW in the state. 

For 5 years working abroad, the daughter was sending hundreds of dollars which enable the couple to own a house and lot in addition to the expensive car for the family use. It was a truly a blessing for having a daughter. 

Not long ago, the parents received a round trip ticket to USA for a grand wedding of her daughter in the state. She got married to her American boyfriend working also in the same hospital as nurse. 

Today when the husband saw their beautiful residential house and a car, he cannot help but recall the past when he was about to abandon his wife and the child. And it was the crying of this child looking for daddy that halted him from abandoning his wife and eventually knitted the family relationship through ‘thick and thin’ of their marriage life.

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Simple Joys Nature Can Offer

By Vic Odarve

Mother Nature has, and always be, offers her inexpensive entertainment. From the forested land and mountains, an orchestra of birds can be heard doing the choir. In the sky, the canopy of clouds is drifting above our heads doing a military drill and at night stars are twinkling in unison like an entertainment in the heavens. Back to our sandy beaches and rivers, breathtaking sights will stick in your mind for the rest of your life. Nature has, and forever be, gives pleasure free of charge to everybody!

A place to meet all the fairies and other magical creatures

It is always a joy to visit farms with our family and kids as weekend retreat area. Nearby are mountains, dense forest, and a pristine river. What we achieve there! Feel the earth. We feel like walking through mist and clouds along the mountain ranges, meet all the fairies and magical creatures and watch the birds doing the orchestra along the canopies. By remembering our good old childhood days, it is sort of feeling that cannot be captured on camera and more than the historic pictures hanging on the wall.

During daytime, clouds can be observed drifting above our heads. At nighttime, it is a joy to see the canopy of stars twinkling in all the heavens; stretching like an enormous spider’s web scattered in all directions across the vastness of the cosmic ocean. We experience the presence of our Creator; we also owe our lives to these stars. By thus doing, we explore the joy the Nature gives. Walking alone or with your love ones along the sandy beaches or take a ride on a floating restaurant alongside in a river is a joy by itself. You may spend some moments tracking fireflies at the banks of a river or the thrill of observing trees decorated with bird’s nests or dined with your family seeing the beautiful panorama underlining the river upstream will open our eyes to the outside world. For a moment, we feel the tranquility of our lives from the toxic city life.

Nature and mankind...No heartaches and pains in city life

The most delightful adventure is to visit mountains, rivers, and beaches of the place where you grew up particularly at your hometown and came back every summer or fiesta celebration enjoying “the best of both worlds. ”It is like an extraordinary privilege. The experience can assist us to appreciate the beauty of nature at this moment of tremendous turmoil brought by the pandemic Covid 19.

For those life teeming with heartaches and pains as well as to those who want to know and feel what love is, science advises them to go outside and relax. As we see it, Nature gives us pleasure free of charge to everybody, from forested lands and mountains, clouds, and stars, to sandy beaches and rivers. It is all given unconditionally… to the poor, the rich, and the mighty!

A Half Kilo Rice, Please!

                 By Vic Odarve

This Covid 19 pandemic nearly brought all people down to its knees.

In the capital city there lived a man with his wife and a baby boy. The household was living in a rented small room in a tightly packed slum dwellers area. Like most of the neighborhood due to the pandemic, this family was in dire of financial needs. Not far from them was a store selling basic goods. The husband and wife used to sell a kilo or more of a ‘first class rice” to their neighborhood.

Slum dwellers in the city

Early in the morning the husband noticed a small boy came and bought a half-kilo rice. And he did it since the pandemic Covid-19 began. “Am puzzled why this family budgeted only half a kilo rice instead of the usual one kilo,” the husband told himself. When he informed his wife about this boy, she merely laughed at her husband. She reminded him to sell the rice as usual…only a minimum of a kilo and do not entertain below a kilo.

A half- kilo rice, please!

The pandemic nearly brought our slum neighborhood to its knees. The husband could see how the families coupled with no work no pay struggling in pain as companies are closed in operation. Most people are a little bit relieved when the Social Amelioration Program or SAP from the government was given. But still on this large community of slum dwellers whose living depends largely on the economic life of the business of the city, life is difficult. They would suffer all day long until the COVID 19 lockdown is somewhat loosened. 

One day, it was his wife who opened the store early in the morning. A boy came and wanted to buy a half-kilo rice. At that instant she informed the boy that she did not sell a half kilo and instead only a kilo minimum was allowed and entertained. The boy returned home and informed his mother that only one kilo rice is entertained. A moment later, the mother went to the store and asked to buy a half-kilo rice. “Why not buy one kilo rice instead of the half kilo? ‘the wife asked the mother. “This is the only our budget,’ replied the mother.

 

Mayana Village life is away from Covid-19

After a lengthy conversation, it was then learned that they are using “NFA rice” because it was the cheapest rice in town and that the half kilo first class rice they intend to buy will be mixed to make the cooked rice ‘softer and savory.’ If pure NFA rice, the cooked rice was smelly, and they experienced unusual taste. Upon hearing this, the wife looked so concerned and remorseful over the neighbor. A little while the husband arrived. He saw her wife face was a little bit upset and sorrowful. Then she told her husband over the boy who always bought a half-kilo rice. 

To date, majority of the slum dwellers live in a hand to mouth situation. These people are struggling in pain and trying to seek ways just to survive and live. 

A half kilo rice would mean everything to them. It gives them a chance to live another day.