How are you?

About 2 weeks back, I spoke briefly to Liz - don't know her very well, but one thing that stands out about her is that she's a very sweet girl who really cares for people. She asked me a question I couldn't answer, "How are you?"

With most people, it's an easy question to answer, because it's a functional question rather than a real question - they ask you as a polite conversation starter, not because they really want a thesis on the state of your social/work/emotional/etc well-being. But with Liz, it's a real question. Which posed a problem to me - I couldn't answer the question because I honestly did not know how I was doing! Blame it on the mad pace of work, from which I've been trying to recover these 2 weeks (my doctor can testify to that, after earning $50 from me!) And I guess choosing to be a workaholic for a few weeks (months?) doesn't help - although whether I have a choice is debatable.

It is a real danger to allow work to dominate you. Besides falling ill, one could actually be on the verge of losing friends (thank God for best friends with oodles of patience!). And in my case, I run the risk of having to live in a construction site next year, since I still haven't met my reno guy.

I'm not meant to function as a human doing but a human being. Amidst the doing, rest is crucial. Not the physical rest alone, but dedicating time to building relationships with the people that matter, enjoying the beauty of the simple things, and reflection and re-creation (not recreation). It's just as well that next year is the year of Sabbath.

How am I doing?

Better. But I'm still on my way on a long long journey.