Good Luck and Hard Work

I won’t be surprised if, sometimes, people wonder how we get by. Think about it: two freelancers in the third-world Philippines raisng a toddler. Paying the bills, going out to eat, shopping for nice things, enrolling in playschool. It’s a little unreal… and unrealistic. Of course, the truth is we don’t announce the times when we’re worried about what happens until the receivables come, or the times when we freak out about the electricity bill, or the times when we declare moratoriums on restaurants and shopping.

But we do have a comfortable life, this way of working and living and learning together. We’re sticking out this choice of a life because–I’d like to think–we’re focused on where we’re headed. We’ve been lucky so far with our choices and the breaks we’re getting, I’d like to think that the universe is giving us good karma as well as teaching us the need for hard work. It becomes a cycle. Work brings luck and luck brings work. Not everyone may understand that even if we’re in bed until 11am sometimes (like these days when mornings are dark and grey), that our days are full of things-to-do and that maybe, perhaps, we were working until 3am with proposals and brainstorming, after the baby had gone to sleep and the house put back in order.

Hard-earned luck for hard work. Good work for good luck. And the good instincts to recognize how they play off each other. Everyday, I am learning my lessons. Recently, I am being taught gratitude.