Feng Shui

Thursday, January 27, is a day which will undeniably go down in my history as one of the worst days of 2005. It was a day when nothing was going right. Too many human errors were causing major problems in our office. And my boss (aka my dad) felt that the blame had to fall on me, since I was the person in charge of everything. I had spent half of that day on the phone negotiating with our Chinese supplier in my broken Mandarin, and was definitely in no mood to accept blame for something I felt I had no control over. So after our silent argument, I left the office feeling more frustrated than ever.

I attended the Manilena Jaycees event that night with a heavy heart. Even though all I really wanted to do that night was to brood in a corner, I forced myself to smile and meet people. God, I prayed, just give me peace of mind even for just a few hours tonight. The event finally started, with the host announcing that they had asked a speaker to talk about feng shui and other paranormal stuff.

Feng shui? Maybe that's the reason why nothing seemed to be going right? I remembered the jade figurines we bought in Shanghai, which would supposedly bring us luck. The feng shui master had advised us to place the figurines beside each other in a corner of our house facing the main door. The thing is, a few days ago, Raymond had placed a new plastic lamp between the two figurines, separating them. Now, I am always wary about rearranging things in my room, as I feel that any change I make in the room will bring changes in my life too. Okay okay.. call me crazy, but that's how I really feel about it. Once or twice, a major change has happened in my life immediately after I rearranged some stuff in my room.

When I got home that night, I told Richmond about my crappy day. We ended up talking about the sudden influx of problems not just in my life but in his life as well. Come to think of it, my parents were experiencing more problems than usual too. I casually mentioned that maybe the jade figurines had something to do with it. His eyes widened, as he told me that he had been thinking about the same thing. We decided right then and there to remove the plastic lamp and to place the figurines back in their original positions. We were aghast when we discovered that Raymond had put double adhesives on the feet of the figurines, keeping them stuck to the table. "Sorry." he said. "Hindi ko alam na pang-feng shui pala yan. Akala ko binili lang for decoration." So we removed the lamp, removed the double adhesives, and placed the figurines beside each other again.

The next day, some of the problems in the office were partially solved. The shipment (one of the major issues in the office the day before) was released late that afternoon. And my parents were also able to resolve an issue they were facing. And I remembered the jade figurines. Could it have been a coincidence?