
It is really difficult to part from your loved ones even temporarily. This writer is experiencing that difficulty these days. It has been a week now since my two boys left for Saudi Arabia due to the Christmas holiday here in the United Kingdom.
Gosh, it seems like ages. Being separated from them is very hard. Although, their trip was already planned and I had been dreading the fact that I would not be able to see them for 15 days and how much would I miss my kids. May God always protect them.
It was really dreadful to enter the house without them. I roamed up and down the rooms in anticipation of hearing their voices, yelling at one another and making complaints about one thing or the other. Anyway, after the initial separation anxiety, I suddenly realized that after an entire year of being a single mother, I am finally free for sometime.
It is true, however that I have loads of work to do on my thesis and that I will need every minute of this vacation to finish the chapter I am currently working on. But I will be frank and admit that being free from responsibilities made me realize some small blessings that people usually take for granted. It was amazing that now I have the luxury to stretch and take my time before waking up in the morning.
With having two school-age boys to wake up, feed and aid in dressing up in the morning, stretching up is a luxury very hard to afford, but now I can enjoy, wow it feels great. It also feels great not having to stock up your fridge and can rely on bringing up necessities as needed. Trips to the supermarkets were as much tiring as enjoyable and not having to do them for couple of weeks is just a blessing. Now I don’t have to make sure that school uniforms are washed and ready. It was really hard when some nights I was too tired to move any bone in my body and realized with my eyes almost shut that uniforms needed to be washed.
Now I can simply work on my very own pace not having to count the minutes before I need to go for the school run to pick them up and either go home with the two of them hungry and whining for food or to take them to their Arabic language tutor and put up with their routine objections that they did not need any tuition and they wanted to go home and play.
It was also really enjoyable not having to cook, yes I love cooking and enjoy it to the max, but during this vacation I decided no to do any cooking. I am relying on just eating whatever available during my time in the library.
It feels really good to change the routine to be honest. I miss them so much and now as it started snowing I cannot stop imagining them playing and sledging, but I am allowing myself the luxury to enjoy myself and relax, it is a well deserved responsibility-free time gained after a very hard long year. It is really important that we free ourselves from negative feelings and just enjoy what life has to offer, and yes, small things really matter.
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@HatoonKadi













