A Hungry Man is an Angry Man

I went to the Brunei Speakers' Club today and I was called upon to do an impromptu speech. This week the Table Topics Master had decided that his theme was "Proverbs" and he chose some which were popular and some which were not that familiar to me. He asked us to deliver a speech and after our 2 minutes, he will give the definition to see how close we were to the actual meaning of the proverb.

It was amusing that I got this proverb "A hungry man is an angry man." It was weird, I didn't know what it meant because all I could do was take it literally! How I interpreted it was that not being able to eat the foods that your body was once used to, you will start to feel withdrawal symptoms just like when you choose to quit smoking, and then these withdrawal symptoms can cause you to become emotional. Now day 9 into this programme, I do feel the level of irritation and frustration and I am seriously doing my best not to let it out on anyone. Maybe I should go punch the punching bag in the gym or something or scream into my pillow!

I found out later though that the proverb presented to me actually means "A person who does not get what he wants or needs is a frustrated person and will be easily provoked to rage." Maybe I can still relate this to food. The fact I am not able to eat what I want to eat makes me frustrated and I feel some level of anger within me. Not being able to eat what I feel like eating, on the outset, I don't think people are able to tell because it seems I'm handling this quite well. I don't really talk about it so much. I don't complain so much. But it's reflected in my feelings and as the famous line goes "And this too shall pass..."

At the same time this is all about focus. What am I focusing my energy on? And that I am reminded to be grateful of all the gifts from God. I really like this saying, "Happiness is not when you get what you want but happiness is when you want what you have." I have it all. 

The human mind is so complex, I really know this situation is temporary. Just hang in there!