Magic chocolates
It took me three years to mend a misunderstanding with a friend, a co-worker who thought I was trying to pull the rug under her feet. She had reasons to believe that, though it was not true. The more I tried to explain, the more irritated she became, till I understood that there was nothing more I could do or say. From then on, I kept mostly to myself, avoiding situations that would be clumsy for both of us. I don't go willingly where I am not welcome if it is not strictly necessary. But keeping quiet had a price for me. I had dreams where everything was made right again, just to be awake and realize that nothing had changed.
Time went by. And we kept working together. At first, we restabilished just a cold and polite work relationship. After a while, the ice was broken, though I couldn't really understand why. Trust was recovered. When I had to move my desk to her section, there was no problem, no bad feelings in the air at all. That was a year ago. Today, as I want so much to make peace with the world, for the first time I told her how happy I was to see that we had overcome that incident. It truly meant a lot to me, though I really didn't understand what had happened to change her mind. Then she told me that, for her, all the bad feelings were left behind one day, more than an year ago. I had gotten a chocolate box as a gift. She says I went to her desk, and insisted that she had some of those chocolates, because they were very good. I remember that just vaguely. She said that those candies had the power to make her see me in a different light. It was difficult for her to imagine that a person capable of foul play would wander around the office offering really good chocolates to all.
I wish I had one more box of those magic chocolates right now.
5 Comments:
there are a lot of things that i could learn from u senora brazillian cafe...
sometimes it makes me wonder why nice people like u have to face curve balls thrown by none other then life itself...
but i guess everyone has got their share of pain and hurt in life and often times ppl say 'what doesnt kill u makes u stronger'. so i hope all that has happened has somehow made u a stronger person...
Here we say that God gives only cold enough for the blankets we have at home. It is hard make an evaluation when you are in the middle of things. See, sg apparently very good may take you to a disagreable place. And sg that looks very bad may be the road to a better life. Sometimes, we realize that things that happened in the past were not really obstacles on the way. They were the path leading to true happiness. Only it was not clear then.
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In our society, Coffee, it's common to ask your peers, "Sudah makan?" (Have you eaten?) or "Makan?" (Wanna eat?). It's rude to be eating infront of people without offering your own food. Of course, if it's infront of someone you dislike or don't get along with...you do away with custom entirely. So it shows, offering food is a voluntary act of goodwill and a sorta bond of friendship...in Malaysia at least...
Sarah K, in ours, I am ashamed to say, it is not always necessarily so. If I am having a snack, I should offer some for the people around me. This would be the educated thing to do. But when we get a gift of candies or sweets or things like that, theoretically it is okay to choose if we are going to share with the co-workers or bring it home to share with the family. And the newsroom environment can be pretty competitive too, in a way that people choose to share with some and not with others, if they do that at all.
When I was writing about food solely, I would frequently get gifts of pies, cakes, sweets and even pizzas. Personally, I find no fun in not sharing them, especially when they are really good. I like to be able to share my enthusiasm with everybody over a good thing, and don't find much fun in keeping it all to myself. And I love to watch the faces and hear the sighs. For me it is just like cooking, what is the sense of preparing a gourmet dinner just for yourself?
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