Why Say No When You Can Just Say Cheese?

It is bright and sunny as I am typing this - the storm has settled down and finally found its way out of the country. "Glenda" certainly gave Manila a beating huh? It sure spooked the hell out of me too, during its height two days ago, what with its mighty blow running for three hours - an ample amount of time to leave the entire metro in absolute havoc. Even though I was in the comforts of my own room, I still couldn't help but be worried about the safety of my loved ones. But good thing that's all over with now. Only thing left for us to do is to clean up the trail of mess that is occupying the major streets of the Metro, move on, and just charge everything that happened to experience. 

(Photo from my instagram: jemyeahreyes) 

 Meanwhile, while I was confined to the four walls of my room yesterday, since pretty much the entire city was experiencing a total blackout, I decided to catch up on my reading. I ended up reading Who Moved My Cheese by Dr. Spencer Johnson. It's such an easy and light read that I finished the whole thing in less than an hour. What fascinated me the most with this self help book is how simple and blatantly written it was, and if you didn't know anything about it, you might even associate it with a children's book because of the large fonts and the fact that it is a less-than-a-hundred paged writing. Shortly after reading it, I found myself thinking real hard about life again. 

Do you ever get of one those moments? Moments wherein you begin to question life, you begin to question your philosophies in life & whether the path you're treading on is of the right path? Very rarely do I get those, but when I do fall into that abyss, I always pick up something from it. 

See, what I realized is, that life is simple. Yes, I know, everyone's heard of this story before, it's what graduation ceremonies, cell groups, and whatever self-help group out there is made of, but I'll go on with it anyway because who knows, someone out there might actually need it. (I needed it) 

Yes, life is simple. The questions that we have in our heads all this time? They come with an even more simple answer. In Who Moved My Cheese, there are four characters in the story namely, Sniff, Scurry, Hem, & Haw. Now, these four guys, they all live inside a maze in which they struggle, everyday of their lives, to find cheese. Yup, THE CHEESE. And the cheese is a representation of what our goals in life are - whether it's got something to do with our career, relationships, family, or some other thing, that's the Cheese. 

Sniff is a little mice who, as his name suggests, "sniffs" his way into life. He trusts his instincts and therefore, know when it's time to move on and change. Scurry is, again, as his name suggests, is one who scurries. He doesn't over analyze things, he scurries instinctively, and when he senses that something isn't working out already, he walks away. They're pretty similar as you can see, but instead of being like these guys, most of us (including yours truly), end up being more like Hem & Haw. 

Now good guy Hem is a little human being who has gotten way too comfortable living with his Old Cheese, that he stays "hemmed" in that station forever. He doesn't prepare for the worst and therefore, when life brings it hard to him (like when his Cheese went missing), he becomes emotional, he blames people, and he denies the change that is happening right before him. To cope, he assures himself that everything's just temporary, that eventually it'll come back to normal. 

And then there's Haw, who, just like Hem, denies the change that is happening right before his eyes. But what sets Haw apart from Hem is that, he is not afraid of change, is not afraid to see it and in the end, learns to accept it, and then does something about it. When he noticed that the Cheese isn't coming back, he gave it much thought, and after realizing his own folly, laughed at how simple the answer could have been, and decided to go back into the Maze in search for New Cheese. 

To sum this long entry up, change is what makes up life and not everything is meant to work out in this life time - whether that's your career talking or your bad relationship talking, it's the same story. We have to learn how to be flexible and we have to learn how to adapt to new situations. We can't be stuck in this rut, incessantly questioning where we went wrong, what we could have done - no. Because over analyzing things, only leads us to more questions rather than answers. And the answer, my friends, couldn't have been more simple. If something isn't working out in your life anymore, move on. 

And moving on isn't going to be easy, not now not ever, not when you feel like you're okay with this, that you could live with this, but get this. The only thing standing between you & your chance of finding your Cheese, is your fear. Your irrational man made fears, all thanks to your over active brain. Yup, all you my friend. However, when you're able to laugh at your own follies & realize how absurd your fears are, things are going to look up for you. All of what you're going through (as what Haw figured in the book) is all a blessing in disguise. Because it's going to lead you to finding New Cheese. A better one at that.