The coming and going of some of our household possessions simply reminds me that nothing ever lasts forever. I’ve sadly noticed that some of our appliances and stuff here at home broke down one after the other. For instance, our ever-dependable blender/juicer/grinder Magic Bullet won’t operate anymore. It simply refused to wave its magic and start its job, despite my Dad tinkering on it. No more quickly-prepared minced and chopped onions or garlic for me. No more yummy fruit shakes and healthy veggie concoctions of moringa, carrots and cucumber to look forward to. Also, another casualty last December was our coffee maker, with the glass carafe accidentally broken by my bro. So, my love affair with brewed coffee is temporarily off for now. I can rattle off with a list of other recently broken stuff here at home, but I am also grateful that we have new ones to replace them.

Even the toughest brands fails us, ultimately they break and let us down. Our brand new Canon E460 printer failed us on my parents’ big day, their golden wedding anniversary, when we needed to print so many important documents – the missalette, the reception program, etc. I can’t imagine why it chose to break down on that very special day and jeopardized the plans and preparations of our family. Now it is shipped to an authorized service center in Cebu for repair. I bought it early December, so it’s still new and that’s what makes it even more disappointing, knowing that we used it for weeks only and it broke down.

Truly, things have a way of telling us that this world is full of “now you see it, now you don’t” situations. Personally, it’s a test of patience and acceptance. I do hope this year, the things we invested in will bring us more help rather than hassles. And I mean not just appliances and tools, but in a broader perspective, other investments such as finances and activities we’ve put in so much of ourselves. In the end though, we can only accept and find meaning if things don’t turn out the way we want them to be.