Getting that focus

It's summertime here in the Philippines and the temperature goes to as high as 35 C. Our kids had been pretty much confined at home, their eyes glued over their respective game devices with their fingers on the keypads and their focus almost 100% to their preferred game/ movie. So much so as when you call them, you pretty much would have your voice to a loud 10/10 before you could at least make their head turn and ask "what?".

Times had been so different when we were kids, our games were pretty much more physical and more social. Who wouldn't miss our hide and seek games, "What's your name...Orange juice (huh)", tumbang preso (hit the can), syoto, and pasi (top)? Instead of us hitting each other's tops and having the last top turning as the winner, my kids are now into the commercialized "Beyblade" game, each mini top with its metal cover cost almost P500! (  ~ $10!). That money could buy me a dozen tops, problem is I think they are nearly extinct nowadays.

Whatever the game is (whether circa 1970s or 2010s), one thing is for sure with kids.... that ability to focus and play into the game.

Sad to say, as adults since we are all so exposed to different situations / faces / predicaments (in short, stimuli) in life, we fall victim to distractions and get lost with the ongoings around us. We lose focus as we start our day, we most of the time do not fulfill our worthwhile goals/ agenda because "things happen" and we do this, we do that, we go astray our purpose.

Sooner or later, the attitude degenerates into the "come what may" attitude.....just wake up in the morning, wait for things to happen and simply react to them. Whoa, we are not plants, we can move and think!

Indifference and laziness are the main ingredients of a complaining, uncontented, and miserable life. The best cure for grief and frustration is action.

And kids are the perfect example of the indefatigable spirit. Just watch them closely how persistent they are when they want something. You're watching TV and your tot scratches your back and say, "Dad, I wanna watch Barney". "No, I'm watching the news" , you say. But then he goes again,  "Daddy, I wanna watch Barney". You resist again but there he could go on and on until you give in....

Talo ka sa bata! " (You lost to a kid!).