we did good in this life

my friend's daughter, bea, graduates this month, a rather difficult pre-medicine course. i see her only a few times personally, yet i know her quite well, what with her mom and i always in constant touch, and always together, somewhere in conferences. her mom, maan and i have been friends for as long as i can remember. she told me once that a feng sui expert told her our friendship is solid as rock, and that whatever comes our way, we can overcome. of course as normal friends, we have had our differences. but we have managed to be there for each other come what may, through the years.

we raised our kids almost the same time. which makes me sentimental about debuts, graduations, and God forbid will be in weddings. together, we saw our kids through the birthday parties, the swimming get-togethers and what-not, all in the middle of our work. our work kept us stressed, but grounded because of our kids. we grew older in this work, and still we struggle everyday to strike that balance so our kids would not 'be like us', as we both always say. 

we are rewarded the chance to have serious and adult conversations about life, with these kids, every now and then. they have their own worlds now, so each chance is a treasure. their lives are not simple, with us as mothers. they have, together with us their mothers, walked the path parallel to ours. they have seen and heard what kids their age should not have. they, too, have felt the pain. but together, too, we had seen rainbows after the rain.

it is perhaps because of all these that they have all grown faster than their age, gained the wisdom past their years. i talk to my daughter, ana, and in middle of the conversation my mind drifts to the fact that nowadays she is more like the mom in our relationship. i talk to my son, aidan, and i am speechless at his thoughts expressed in words so simple, yet profound. i hear about bea handling too many review sessions, about to give up, of dealing with stuff she is not supposed to, but she 'walked through the mythical arc', head held high. 

thank goodness for our kids. without them, there would be no 'us'. no christianne. no maan. whatever others perceive us to be, our kids have shown the world, we did good in this life.