A Treasure

Sometimes I get frustrated by the long working hours that Zibin has. That guy has so much to do at work that he’s usually out the front door by 7a.m. (sometimes earlier) and only comes home around 8:45p.m. Quite often it’s later than that and we only have dinner between 9 or 10p.m. (It comes with working in an air base though, and outside of the long hours and heavy workload, he doesn’t have much to complain.)

As tired as he is, my hubby always helps me to clean up after dinner. He clears the table and cleans the stove and steam oven and clears the trash while I do the dishes. And when he’s done, he doesn’t go and relax on the sofa as much as I ask him to. He chooses to help me with the dishes or talk to me while I finish cleaning up.

In the short couple of hours we have before bedtime, we trade stories about our day. I love that. I love hearing funny anecdotes about his colleagues, or the more serious challenges he faces in how to deal with discipline issues with his men. I always enjoy hearing him talk about his work partly because I can tell that as tired and ‘sian’ as he sometimes feels about work, he enjoys the challenges and finds fulfillment in co-building team spirit and camaraderie with his colleagues.

But I’m also happy because I know that as much as he enjoys his work, he really tries to come home early to spend time with me. I’m happy that he wants to share what happened during his day with me. And when there are extra activities that his boss comes up with on weekends (like group jogging at East Coast Park on Saturday morning), he chooses to spend the time with me instead of going to ‘score points’. I can tell he misses me, and that he’s really worried that his long working hours are making me unhappy.

I confess, now and then, I do get frustrated… like when I expect him back for dinner at 8:45 and he ends up coming back at 10p.m. because of some last minute thing he has to deal with. But then, before I get angry, I think of how much he loves me and how helpless and dejected he’ll feel if I get angry, and my negativity just melts away such that all I can think of is how to make him comfortable when he gets home after his long day.

Each morning I’d usually clamber out of bed to make Zibin a mug of oat-milk-cereal drink and pack him a bottle of water and a bottle of home-made chrysanthemum tea to bring to work. But today, my hubby left home at 6a.m. (for duty) and I missed sending him off. Instead, I woke up to a handwritten note at my bedside thanking me for loving and supporting him, and promising me that he won’t take me or my love for granted.

I really have a most amazing treasure. I pray that I will always cherish him!