Life is still truly beautiful...
Leaving this entry public because I'd like to share something once in a while.
I began the day normally. I walked towards the Justice Hall here and followed up on law related things and right before I enter the doors, there was this man in a loose shirt and flower-printed shorts holding a couple of one thousand peso bills. He was seemingly talking to three ladies and before we knew it, he was in the middle of the road, exchanging sizzling words with one of the women. Cars were honking, people stopped to stare (including me, of course) and yet, that man seemed oblivious to anything except the lady throwing curses at him. They mentioned drugs and marijuana and one of the women commented how that guy is a crazy drug addict. They were apparently court litigants.
In spite of that long introduction about how my day began, what impressed me the most was not the nonsensical fight happening in front of me. It was the young man beside him who was muttering about respect, privacy and proper conduct. He bent down to pick a jacket that fell from a baby's grasp, chased the baby and her mother just to give the jacket, went back to the little scene and shook his head, apparently disappointed how some people who were probably 10 years older than him act so childishly.
It was an ordinary scene but something that reminded me that there are still some young people these days who cares about good manners and right conduct. There are still some young people who do away with the cursing, the expressions of shit, fucks, whore, bitch, and take their time to do one simple act of kindness. Imagine how the world will be if most people would do one kind deed everyday. It doesn't matter how small, or how insignificant because these things, no matter how tiny they are can pile up in layers and before we know it, the world is filled with kindness instead of words of hate.
But anyway, after I did what I came out to do, I had breakfast alone and sat near the window. I love sitting by the window and watching random people. Most of the time they give me something to write about, sometimes they simply provide entertainment. There were various people from all walks of life below me, each busy with their activities. The place is near a market and a livelihood complex and it's the best way to view how life in this City truly is. What impressed me the most, however, was not the people in pretty clothes and pretty make-ups. What impressed me was the young man selling street food near the fastfood chain.
I see him each time I pass there - that young man. He would be standing on the same spot with his cart full of fishballs and other street food and he would be silently doing his work. He does it quickly and diligently. He's around eighteen, maybe. Old enough to go to college, have classes, have friends and live the way normal teenagers should. But there he was, doing something he probably would be doing for some years to come.
What's so striking about it, you ask? At least he's working. At least he's doing something to earn for himself instead of robbing a bank, stealing a cellphone or maybe committing acts of theft. There are probably thousands of people like him in this country and I always salute them and they will forever have my respect. In my life, I can only wish to be as brave as them... to be proud about performing work that most people would probably consider insignificant.
Life, perseverance, hard work, patience and dedication... I never did (and never will) consider them insignificant.
Before I left that fastfood chain, Jordin Spark's One Step at a Time played over the radio. It's a song I didn't bother listening to since it came out yet, as I sit there, alone and pondering about certain things, the lyrics came to me clearer than they did before. One step at a time. What is meant to happen will happen and it was then that I thought, maybe, since my first failure a year ago, I've been making little steps towards my dream. And maybe, now's the right time for them to come true. Maybe. Just maybe. But it gave me hope. And it made me happy.
We do, really find hope and happiness in things like that, don't we?
So then my morning continued and I found myself performing an errand for my mother. I was in a bank, handing my mother's passbook to a smiling bank teller. She made several mistakes, I made several mistakes, she forgot to hand me back the passbook, I forgot to take it from her and all throughout that little exchange, we kept smiling at each other. She giggled, I giggled and in my point of view, she was a very pleasant employee. I was probably a very pleasant client for her too. Both our mornings were graced by each other's smiles.
Halfway through my morning, I was about to enter a supermarket. It's a practice here in the Philippines that when you enter a mall or a department store, a security guard will check your bag for deadly weapons or whatever. And so I quietly fell in line, waiting for my turn. There's a mother carrying her baby in front of me and at the end of the line, a new lady security guard was checking the bags. She's very pleasant too, smiling and greeting everyone. When the mother in front of me opened her baby's diaper bag, it contained an unopened pack of diapers with the same brand as what that supermarket sells. She was about to go inside when the security guard stopped her politely.
"Let me mark it first, ma'am so it wouldn't cause any inconvenience to you just in case they think you've taken it without paying for it," the security guard politely said with that same huge smile on her face.
The mother looked a little pissed but smiled afterwards, bowing her head a little to acknowledge the act.
I smiled too. It was a nice exchange of polite words. Performing one's work and duty does not necessarily mean frowning and snapping at people, do they? It can be done with polite words and a smile.
Little things like random smiles from a stranger sure are heartwarming and very fulfilling, aren't they? They make life extra beautiful.
And so my morning activities were over and I was heading home. I was riding the public transportation, looking outside the window. There were happy things passing by in front of my eyes: a mother who kissed her little child, vendors exchanging hearty laughter, the driver returning small change honestly. It was a pretty morning. I laughed at the people bumping their heads on the small light fixed on the ceiling of the vehicle and there's an amusing little lady sitting beside me, talking to her phone loudly about things that happened to her.
I was sitting behind the driver, handing fares to him and handing small change back to the passengers. There was a passenger who paid ten pesos and I was the one who gave her fare to the driver. Then, when her change came back, it felt heavier, somehow. I gave the change back to the passenger and when she was about to put it in her pouch I noticed that instead of her correct change, she was handed two five peso coins and two one peso coins, all in all twelve pesos. She didn't notice it and I lost the chance and the courage to tell her that there's a huge excess to her change. I sat there, chewing my lips, debating whether to say something or not.
In the end I didn't and no one but me knows it. I felt a little guilty and uncomfortable but I let it go. Sometimes, life's that way, isn't it? It's full of dishonesty and trickery that we lose faith in it. But there are certain little reminders (like the ones I've narrated above) that continue to tell us how to find beauty in life itself.
A smile, good mannered people, hard working youth, funny little scenes, a sunny day, a vacant seat in the public transportation, an honestly returned small change... they may not be the "big" things were are looking for but they certainly do remind us that life is, indeed, still truly beautiful.
Magnificently beautiful. Always.
^______^
I began the day normally. I walked towards the Justice Hall here and followed up on law related things and right before I enter the doors, there was this man in a loose shirt and flower-printed shorts holding a couple of one thousand peso bills. He was seemingly talking to three ladies and before we knew it, he was in the middle of the road, exchanging sizzling words with one of the women. Cars were honking, people stopped to stare (including me, of course) and yet, that man seemed oblivious to anything except the lady throwing curses at him. They mentioned drugs and marijuana and one of the women commented how that guy is a crazy drug addict. They were apparently court litigants.
In spite of that long introduction about how my day began, what impressed me the most was not the nonsensical fight happening in front of me. It was the young man beside him who was muttering about respect, privacy and proper conduct. He bent down to pick a jacket that fell from a baby's grasp, chased the baby and her mother just to give the jacket, went back to the little scene and shook his head, apparently disappointed how some people who were probably 10 years older than him act so childishly.
It was an ordinary scene but something that reminded me that there are still some young people these days who cares about good manners and right conduct. There are still some young people who do away with the cursing, the expressions of shit, fucks, whore, bitch, and take their time to do one simple act of kindness. Imagine how the world will be if most people would do one kind deed everyday. It doesn't matter how small, or how insignificant because these things, no matter how tiny they are can pile up in layers and before we know it, the world is filled with kindness instead of words of hate.
But anyway, after I did what I came out to do, I had breakfast alone and sat near the window. I love sitting by the window and watching random people. Most of the time they give me something to write about, sometimes they simply provide entertainment. There were various people from all walks of life below me, each busy with their activities. The place is near a market and a livelihood complex and it's the best way to view how life in this City truly is. What impressed me the most, however, was not the people in pretty clothes and pretty make-ups. What impressed me was the young man selling street food near the fastfood chain.
I see him each time I pass there - that young man. He would be standing on the same spot with his cart full of fishballs and other street food and he would be silently doing his work. He does it quickly and diligently. He's around eighteen, maybe. Old enough to go to college, have classes, have friends and live the way normal teenagers should. But there he was, doing something he probably would be doing for some years to come.
What's so striking about it, you ask? At least he's working. At least he's doing something to earn for himself instead of robbing a bank, stealing a cellphone or maybe committing acts of theft. There are probably thousands of people like him in this country and I always salute them and they will forever have my respect. In my life, I can only wish to be as brave as them... to be proud about performing work that most people would probably consider insignificant.
Life, perseverance, hard work, patience and dedication... I never did (and never will) consider them insignificant.
Before I left that fastfood chain, Jordin Spark's One Step at a Time played over the radio. It's a song I didn't bother listening to since it came out yet, as I sit there, alone and pondering about certain things, the lyrics came to me clearer than they did before. One step at a time. What is meant to happen will happen and it was then that I thought, maybe, since my first failure a year ago, I've been making little steps towards my dream. And maybe, now's the right time for them to come true. Maybe. Just maybe. But it gave me hope. And it made me happy.
We do, really find hope and happiness in things like that, don't we?
So then my morning continued and I found myself performing an errand for my mother. I was in a bank, handing my mother's passbook to a smiling bank teller. She made several mistakes, I made several mistakes, she forgot to hand me back the passbook, I forgot to take it from her and all throughout that little exchange, we kept smiling at each other. She giggled, I giggled and in my point of view, she was a very pleasant employee. I was probably a very pleasant client for her too. Both our mornings were graced by each other's smiles.
Halfway through my morning, I was about to enter a supermarket. It's a practice here in the Philippines that when you enter a mall or a department store, a security guard will check your bag for deadly weapons or whatever. And so I quietly fell in line, waiting for my turn. There's a mother carrying her baby in front of me and at the end of the line, a new lady security guard was checking the bags. She's very pleasant too, smiling and greeting everyone. When the mother in front of me opened her baby's diaper bag, it contained an unopened pack of diapers with the same brand as what that supermarket sells. She was about to go inside when the security guard stopped her politely.
"Let me mark it first, ma'am so it wouldn't cause any inconvenience to you just in case they think you've taken it without paying for it," the security guard politely said with that same huge smile on her face.
The mother looked a little pissed but smiled afterwards, bowing her head a little to acknowledge the act.
I smiled too. It was a nice exchange of polite words. Performing one's work and duty does not necessarily mean frowning and snapping at people, do they? It can be done with polite words and a smile.
Little things like random smiles from a stranger sure are heartwarming and very fulfilling, aren't they? They make life extra beautiful.
And so my morning activities were over and I was heading home. I was riding the public transportation, looking outside the window. There were happy things passing by in front of my eyes: a mother who kissed her little child, vendors exchanging hearty laughter, the driver returning small change honestly. It was a pretty morning. I laughed at the people bumping their heads on the small light fixed on the ceiling of the vehicle and there's an amusing little lady sitting beside me, talking to her phone loudly about things that happened to her.
I was sitting behind the driver, handing fares to him and handing small change back to the passengers. There was a passenger who paid ten pesos and I was the one who gave her fare to the driver. Then, when her change came back, it felt heavier, somehow. I gave the change back to the passenger and when she was about to put it in her pouch I noticed that instead of her correct change, she was handed two five peso coins and two one peso coins, all in all twelve pesos. She didn't notice it and I lost the chance and the courage to tell her that there's a huge excess to her change. I sat there, chewing my lips, debating whether to say something or not.
In the end I didn't and no one but me knows it. I felt a little guilty and uncomfortable but I let it go. Sometimes, life's that way, isn't it? It's full of dishonesty and trickery that we lose faith in it. But there are certain little reminders (like the ones I've narrated above) that continue to tell us how to find beauty in life itself.
A smile, good mannered people, hard working youth, funny little scenes, a sunny day, a vacant seat in the public transportation, an honestly returned small change... they may not be the "big" things were are looking for but they certainly do remind us that life is, indeed, still truly beautiful.
Magnificently beautiful. Always.
^______^