Being on vacation gives you the most authentic experience that can teach you a lot of possibilities. If not the most authentic, then the most common experience that anyone could have.
There’s a possibility of a Super Typhoon coming on this weekend, I am so hesitant to go back home. But, because of uncertainties, I decided to go back and asked my mom if we can eat outside. We went out, and order local cuisine. We’re enjoying our meal and there’s this boy outside asking for a penny. I observed him because he was also the one who asked last time. With no grudge, judgment, or whatever, I observed the boy using my peripheral view. After a minute or two, he grabbed the remaining food that other customers left and they gave him a fifty peso bill. My heart felt warm as I appreciate the couple giving him a bill instead of the penny being asked. So, the boy continues eating the remaining food once again. In this situation, I was stoned. I am humbled. I was stoned because it was too awkward to see him eating the leftover food (thinking that he can eat a new cook food) and I am humbled because even if life was too difficult for us with my family, I didn’t experience eating food left by some strangers at the street. Although, I felt the guilt of comparing, because we have our battles, to begin with, I bleed and cried for the boy. After eating, he went for us asking for a penny, the same words he used for the first customers he ran into. My mom gave him 20 pesos, and I didn’t eat half of my food and didn’t drink my soda. While walking home, I want to undo the scenario. What if we just ordered again new cooked meal for the boy, or what if we just gave him a large amount so that he can order his meal? But, my mom whispered to me that the restaurant was about to close. We were their last order for the day. And the latter, my mom said that the boy always asked for penny around town. She cannot count using her fingers how many times he gave the boy penny. My mom even thanked me for empathizing and she tapped her back because she knew well that we grow up along with my sister observing around and being kind at times (we’re only humans). So now, what’s the point of me saying this to you guys?
Allow me to point four things I learned from this:
- Being a keen observer all the time spare you the explanation you need when every thing comes to chaos.
- Having the mindset of knowing the good instead of always proving the right thing.(I learned from my Ethics subject that being good and being right is not the same thing. We can be good but feels wrong, and we can be right but feels bad. Thinking that not everthing worth to prove its point.)
- Do not be a problem solver all the time. We’re only humans. We have our fair share of being bad once or more in this life time. So, being kind and solving other problems for someone is not good or right all the time. Helping is good, but let’s end helping if help is no way to solve a macro-problem that authority or anyone who’s responsible could not solve for.
- Always be kind. Whenever or whatever the situation is, always choose to be the bigger person. (If being kind allows us to be a billionaire at some point in our lives, I bet we’re all kind. Jk)
So, there’s my retrospection. I know I never be the perfect daughter that any parents would ask from the universe or from the Lord, or never the perfect citizen that any country would ask for, but knowing my truth is just enough. Knowing that we live in our not-so-perfect world is just enought for us to be true to ourselves at all times. Life is hard enough to be rude. Breathing is embarassing enough to embarassed someone. Lastly, life is beautiful to not be beautiful to every one. Beautiful, inside and outside.
thebestofthy 