Glorious Mess

It is Tuesday morning. As I am writing this piece, the sun is shining weakly outside the window, the kind that you would see after the rain has passed. There is a certain calmness in the air, almost lethargic, in fact. It is only 10:30 in the morning but looking outside, you are reminded of those lazy afternoons when everything seems to come to a standstill …. when one can barely see any sign of life stirring about.

But inside our bedroom ….. I found the total opposite! THERE WAS COMPLETE CHAOS EVERYWHERE! I was away for only 40 minutes or so and guess what welcomed me when I came back? There was music from Sleeping Beauty as Aurora and her Prince waltzed to the tune of Once Upon a Dream, the volume turned up so loudly I had difficultly hearing myself think! My head started spinning as I surveyed the bedlam … pieces of paper in all forms, sizes, and shapes strewn all over the floor … name it and it was there … torn, crumpled, written on, colored … not to mention an assortment of toys from miniature plates and utensils to an M&M figure that had been dispensing twenty-five centavo coins while I was away! And ohh! … what was the pillow doing on the floor? Grrrrr ……

The bed had not been spared either! About two dozen ballpens lang naman covered practically every inch of the bed, merrily sharing space with crayons and pencils, scissors, a ruler, DVDs and those cute little magnetic numbers and letters that you could stick into whiteboards, and in the center of it all … a tall stack of preschool workbooks and storybooks … and on its place of honor at the top … a mirror from my old powder case, lovingly propped up by a plastic cup weighed down by a bottle of efficascent oil! (Apparently, my 6-year old Abby had been looking for that mirror from among the boxes where all her stuff are kept, and she just happily poured them out as she went about her search. She told me later she wanted that mirror there so she could see if that “white thingy on my tongue” goes away as she drinks more and more liquids!) And as if that is not enough, my sweet little brat pointed towards the ceiling (a crumpled piece of paper was stuck there) and proudly said, “look Ma, my trash can!”

Normally, I would have freaked out at that sight of utter devastation! In any other day, I would have predictably closed my eyes, clenched my fists, filled my lungs up to full capacity with air and start yelling with my trademark ABB – BBYYYYY!!!!

But not now, not today. Today, I saw nothing but GLORIOUS MESS … and that blaring sound? WHAT JOYFUL NOISE!

You see, these past two days have been deafeningly quiet in our home. And our bedroom had been immaculately neat. These two are practically unheard of in our home. But our beloved Abby went down with the flu and the only sounds we could hear then were her pitiful coughs and her heart-wrenching cries while her head was wracked by pain from fever that, at one time, reached 40 degrees. I steadily refused to succumb to panic as I watched my sick child, nearly as red as a tomato, barely eating and vomiting almost everything that she took in.

While I spent sleepless nights caring for her, I remembered those times when she drove me nuts with her boundless energy and near-genius capability to wreak havoc in our home (we only have one piece left from our original 6-piece sala set *sigh*, and we do not have a replacement for that until now. *sigh again* Those were made from cane, and when she was younger, she used to turn them around, upside down, sideways ... then put a blanket over them to serve as roof, there! you see her "house". ). I also remembered myself wishing if only she would sit still for a minute and behave like a proper little lady, just like some of the other children that I see around …

But seeing her that way, sleeping most the time or gazing at me with those dull eyes, and answering my queries about how she felt with a single word, “sick”, I said to myself that I won’t have my hyperactive and precocious chatterbox any other way! I wanted that mischievous sparkle back in her eyes. I longed to see that creative mind back at work, thinking up of ways to amuse herself whenever she is grounded and not allowed to watch the TV.

So what about that apocalyptic scene that greeted me today? Ahhhh ….. what a glorious mess that was (and still is)! And the TV that has returned to the land of the living? Make it louder please … all that noise is making my heart happy :) …

........ They are telling me that my little firebrand is back with a vengeance and that’s exactly how I want everything to be!