Simplicity, Value, and Life

“ That rat is sleepy, looks like he stayed up all night” a woman randomly spoke to me as I got fascinated by a tiny rat in the market and took a picture of it.

The weather app says today’s UV is going to be extreme but it’s Sunday, the day when I am usually stocking up for the week with my mom. It’s really something I am looking forward to lately as often when I am going to the market, I pick up things or two. Sometimes I see fascinating rats, the kind that I don’t get to see often and you’d be surprised they have unconventional looks to it as well. I suppose rats and stray cats lived in abundance around here. There are dried fish sellers and all sorts of things for 24/7. It’s one of the places in town that also never sleeps.

Despite the hot blazing sun, I enjoyed the walk with my mom to get our weekly groceries. For someone like me who tasted all sorts of food, somehow I find simplicity in food more appealing these days. I eat boiled egg religiously that my fitnesspal could attest to that. I used to think eating healthy was expensive because I was following all these fitness influencers or just people online with the so-called what I eat in a day. The thing is, I lose more weight now than ever than during those time when I just mimic things. I have no shame anymore that I enjoy eating simple food and if my diet is really just consisting of americano and boiled eggs.

As time went by, my mom rarely forced me to eat rice too. I don’t have any hate towards rice but it’s just not the food I’d love to have unless it’s an emergency. When I started working out lately, I regret being a glutton. It is really so much easier to eat great food and indulge in them excessively then slowly gaining pounds rather than working out. Nowadays, every single time I am working out, I tell myself that I’ll never go through the same hell ever again. It’s why what I eat these days are truly simple and I only eat things I love and enjoy, not the idea of someone else’s fitness life and such.

The trip to the market honestly is a bizarre experience to me. I am twenty seven and I am old enough to have life figured out. By my society’s standards and people all around me, I’d be having, if not 3 or 2 kids and a whole family to manage. But I still ask my mom to speak on behalf of me to the sellers at the market. I still ask her to strike a deal for me for a good bargain price, I am still heavily dependent on her. It’s also a bizarre experience because I am the same person that could shop at the market, in a foreign country and strike a deal. Perhaps it’s not so bizarre, I am sure some theories out there have ways of explaining things out.

In the past, I hated myself for being an oddball. I tried myself to fit in and you know, trying my best to survive out there socially. As I grew older, I came to terms with everything that I just love to think a lot and contemplate. Perhaps I am a little bit sarcastic, cynic and sometimes can be overly optimistic too. Everything is reflected in my writings. Maybe it’s not the type that people consume, who knows but I just love to write.

The market is also the kind of place where I am touching grass, to see what the so-called “grassroot” talks about. I sit on my comfy chair almost daily, reading the news about dissatisfaction towards the economy, the president and so and so. The thing is, the grassroot doesn't really chatter much about it. They only focus on simple things like whether they could survive the next day and what to eat tomorrow. We can’t talk using big words that would only make us look pretty out of touch. Those who have a phone and talk about these things should really visit the market and observe.

This weekly touching grass also helps me understand more about different values of things. For some, $2000 is a little money and they would pompously say they’re poor and in need of help but for some, that is a lot of money, a life changing event. In the market, it’s a little similar too. For example, my mom and I, given the same amount of money, would value it differently too. She thought that a mere $12 is a lot for a week but to me, that’s truly impossible to get all the things I need. As soon as I got back from the market, I couldn't wait to go for the next one. In another week, I’d perhaps learn different things.

I might have romanticized life around here too much but maybe it’s a dream, for those who are always under stress doing the 9-5. This all could be ideal, soon enough, at least for me. For now, it’s not really ideal and not where I wanted to be in life.