Dear Aileen,
This is a note to yourself to remember to thank God for all your blessings. Here they are:
1) You are healthy. Your family is healthy. Your beautiful son is strong enough to scream for hours if you awaken The Evil Twin.
Your beautiful son jumping on your bed.
2) After 6 years, you have managed to stay in love and married to the same person (though sometimes just barely).
This is despite the fact both of you met in Bar None, Singapore, went steady (after almost working together) 10 days later, and got engaged barely 6 months after. (You married him inVegas! Who does that except the Hollywood fruitcakes?)
3) You have a dog who is not a vicious killer.
This is very important because you also have a small child (see item 1). In fact, she is a very nice dog, even when your son head butts her.
4) You live in a nice, relatively spacious apartment in a nice neighborhood.
Every day, this is your view while you walk your son and dog.
(Though sometimes this is your view because your dog is ball-mad.)
You may not own your home, but this just means you have a chance at spending time looking for your dream home in future.
5) You have friends. Who get creative with your son’s name
6) You were blessed with a child when you never knew how much you wanted one.
This is especially important because you were on the pill for five years prior and were so sure you weren’t pregnant you were drinking wine and seriously wakeboarding. It was the summer you would learn to jump on the wake, you see.
7) You have an extremely deviated septum, yet on the outside, your face is only slightly crooked.
8) Despite being forced to do a degree you hated (Accountancy), you were blessed with a career switch opportunity after just 7 months in a very bad job market.
9) You then had a 10 year often adrenaline-charged (just the way you like it) career in derivatives. Despite all the pitfalls, you led a charmed life. All those trades that went your way. Far more than those that didn’t. And remember when you joined a newly set-up private bank, only to discover it had no platform for Accumulators, the hot equity derivative product of the moment, and you thought you missed the boat? The slow start allowed your Relationship Managers to escape the market carnage that then afflicted so many other banks. Praise the Lord!
10) Your husband let you skydive. Even though he was terrified.
Sincerely,
Yourself
