Juggling

March 6, 2007

Last Saturday, a local variety show had two amateur jugglers for guests. One was in his early 20s and the other was a child -- both males. The older guy was better at juggling three bottles, while the young boy showcased his talent with a bottle and shaker glass. While the older sailed smoothly through his act, the boy dropped his bottle twice. He showed promise, though. With a little training, he could become better than his older competitor.

It’s not about the holding; it’s about the juggling.

Everyday, we juggle many things. We juggle money, roles, tasks, jobs. We move from place to place, person to person, dream to dream. And many times we drop one and pick another.

These past days I’ve been juggling my money to pay bills, buy personal needs and survive the daily gastronomic requirement for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Screw taxes! Screw the deductions that never get back to you as benefits! Salary raise? Whose salary? It’s not about the salary these days, it’s about buying power. Nobody can buy anything decent with just a few hundred pesos nowadays.

And it’s not just happening in the Philippines, according to my aunt, Tita Yorn. Even in South Africa, it’s the same thing. Their family lived there for five years. Things used to be better. Now she said prices have shot up. If you can buy a loaf of bread for One Zimbabwe dollar in those days, now it costs about 1,000 Zimbabwe dollars, she said. WHAT!

And then there’s the matter of juggling my roles as a mother, wife, daughter and employee. And even in the role of employee, I had to juggle deadlines between deliverables for SP, ELEC, Training for the New Hire, and Style Guide Review. In just one day, I experienced running to the office to beat the time, having lunch with Mel for one hour, rushing back to check the lasers for SP, doing the backlog new product reports for ELEC, meeting up with the SG committee, and going to the grocery for home supplies.

It’s so tiring!!! Sometimes, I pity Marthe who’s working to corner me for a game with her dolls or a round of SIMS on the computer. I’m busted. I just lie down in bed after dinner (or in the sofa in front of the TV) and doze off. And Marthe will wake me up when she’s ready to turn in to bed and I’d jump up and realize I’ve missed all the teleseryes and it was midnight.

Juggling….keeping control…not letting things drop. It gives me migraine all the time. And yet, I just have to do it to survive in the long run. Otherwise, I’ll be dropping everything…including myself.