SICKER THAN A DOG, THE PORTUGUESE SHAKESPEARE AND RELAXATION

I hate being sick. I usually only get really sick once a year so since I got sick over Christmas Break in 2006, I hope that now that I’m sick again, I’ll be good to go for 2007. Becca’s friend Tessa came over last Tuesday and Becca took care of her while she was sick. Becca told me to take a vitamin supplement called “Air-borns” and I didn’t. Becca is fine and I’ve been sick since Thursday.

I thought that’d I share a poem with you like I did a year or so ago when I was taking a different Portuguese literature class:

Love’s a fire that burns though undetected;
It’s a wound that aches but without pain;
It’s contentment that is discontented;
It’s not painful though the hurt’s insane;

It’s wanting nothing but our wants consented;
It’s wandering lonely through a crowd and on;
It’s never, with contentment, been contented;
It’s anxiousness one gains when it is gone;

It’s seeking prison by one’s own free will;
It’s serving who’s the victor in this art;
It’s having, for whom kills us, loyalty.

But how can love produce its favor still
With ties of friendship in the human heart,
It Love to self contrary be?
(Translation into English by Frederick G. Williams)

Those who wish to read the original Portuguese can click here. This was written by Luís Vaz de Camões, basically the Shakespeare of Portuguese literature. Instead of being a playwright, he wrote a long epic poem called Os Lusíadas. They’re inspired by the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey but instead of being about Odysseus trying to get back to his home (which many believe to be modern day Portugal) they’re about Vasco da Gama and his historical voyage to India. In his book Moby Dick, Melville says through Ishmael that anyone who wants to know about the sea should read Camões. This is just one of his poems and I hoped that you liked it.

Business is great and keeps me on my toes; school is interesting and requires a lot of reading. Dad and Penny’s gifts to Becca and me this year were some nice watches. I like mine but am having a hard time remembering to wear it since I haven’t had a watch since I lost mine in 2001. Crazy, huh? I’ll get back into the habit soon.

Well, I need to go cough my lungs up so I’ll leave the rest for the lovely Becca.

My poor sweet hubby has been running quite the fever. Last night I wanted to dunk him in an ice bath!! Work has been tiresome. Business has been booming, and more therapists have been hired, yet I am still tired. The place where I work is a massage only place. Its focus is on being therapeutic, and having the therapists work things out. This is what I thought I was getting into, but the more I massage, the more I realize that a lot of the people coming don’t want you to do anything more than relax them. Now, the phrase “I just want to relax” sounds very simple. But every single person has a different idea of how they want to relax. To some, that means deep tissue, and to others a feather duster could work… So when people come in and say that to me I brace myself for what is to come. I try my best to communicate on the pressure and get them to tell me what they want, but in the very act of doing that, you have already done something wrong. Some people like the communication, and others do not. All of them expect you to read their minds when they give you a general phrase, while wanting you to be specific to them. Now yes, therapists often times use their intuition to guide them in a massage, but what the body may need or want, and what the person actually wants can be two different things. Anyway, work has been frustrating for these very reasons. I can do my very best to try and give them what they want out of a session, but some people will be unhappy no matter what you do. So I have been wearing down. I do have regular clients that love me, and only come to me…they are the ones that keep me going. I love massage. I love helping people feel good. I don’t like people assuming things, and getting frustrated when they don’t get what they want, because they expect you to read their brains. Overall I love my job…but everyone has things in the office they don’t like..right???

Anyway, enough about that. Ryan and I are getting more and more excited about Brazil!!! We have paid our first “installment”…and only have 2 left to go, plus plain tickets. WE ARE SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, it is getting late and my hubby would like to go to sleep since he isn’t feeling very well. Please keep him in your prayers!

Love you!

Becca and Ryan