Take time to love the little things...

Today's blog post will be about those special little things which happen that just "make our day". I have two to tell...one that happened the day before yesterday, the other, yesterday...

Yesterday: I am sitting down at Ximena's office giving her an English class on the subject of: "Jobs and Professions." 

After she describes her job to me in detail (everything which I pretty much already knew down to a "T") I ask her to describe someone's job, anyone! It could be her brother-in-law, friend, classmate, workmate - as long as she can describe in detail this person's profession.

She starts: "This person is someone that has a very difficult job. This person works from 6:00 am till 10:00 pm every night. Saturday and Sunday's you will also find this person working. What this person does is something that not anyone can do as it requires a lot of patience and you also have to be good in relating with people. I am sure that if I was the one doing this person's job I would be calling everyone around me "donkey, donkey" (she meant to say "burro, burro" - which is "idiot/stupid" in Portuguese.)

I laughed aloud and corrected her. 

She continued: -This person talks a lot and helps people grow and improve in a very important area of their professional life. Despite this person having a very tough job and working many hours a day, there is also the benefit that this person gets to interact with many other people, meet new faces and make new friends. Plus this person gets paid to have the funniest and most interesting conversations and after a while everyone creates very strong ties and become very attached to the point of loving this person to bits and pieces. I am very proud of this person, and I am sure many other people would say the same. God gave this person a very important gift which is being a teacher. An English teacher. This person is you, Christy!

Ximena planned to continue her speech of "this person" but I stopped her before she could: - Shut up! I am about to start crying... 

I bit my lip and opened my eyes wide to prevent the tears from coming. Silence. It only lasted a few seconds but during those seconds a mutual feeling of love, trust and friendship permeated the room.

Today: It was 9:00 am and I was on the bus terminal catching bus #2 of the day. I counted at least 5 more that I would have to yet catch until the end of the day. I sat down on a bench, headphones on, music blasting. By the amount of people in line I knew that my bus had just left and that I would be there a while until the next one appeared. And then it happened. Spunky smile, round freckled cheeks, golden curls, short chubby arms and legs. Only two years old was my guess. In a moment she was there, sitting next to me; hand on my leg, big brown eyes staring into mine, dimples on her cheeks as she smiled the cutest smile. I wasn't in a bad mood or going "through it"; I was only tired, very tired. I pulled out one side of the earphone and smiled back at her. I wondered where her mother could be (as we were inside a bus terminal!) but that didn't change the fact that she was there, sitting next by me, hand on my leg, and smile on her face. Not a word was exchanged between us (doubt she could even say more than just a word or two) and without thinking I put one earplug in her ear. Her smile became even bigger and her head bobbed up and down to the music. A candy vendor passes by with all sorts of colorful packages of many different shapes and sizes. The little girl reaches out her chubby little arm towards the candies. The candy vendor placed a package of green square mints in her hand and stood by. Once again, no words, just an irresistible pleading look. I took some change out of my bag and paid for the candy package. I don’t know how long we sat there. Her stubby fingers every now and then patting my leg, head bobbing up and down to the music, big brown eyes meeting mine every now and then, mouth smacking as she sucked on the candy, and the most sincere smile lighting up her tiny freckled face. My bus arrived. I got up and said a casual "bye" while she watched me leave with those large brown eyes. Once inside the bus it seemed like the trance I was in, the spell, was broken and all kind of thoughts ran into my head: "Why was she there apparently alone (she wasn't dirty or shabbily dressed...quite to the contrary), where was her mother or person responsible, what made her come sit down next to me and shyly place her hand on my leg, why hadn't I spoken a work other than the quick 'bye' I said when leaving???" I don't have the answer to such questions but I do have that warm fuzzy feeling which is something like that good aftertaste you get when drinking a nice wine. 

What made me think even more about these two little mundane occurrences is how I reacted to them after they passed. The past three days I went back to exercising (with gusto), am waking up earlier to take some time to read my Bible, deep cleaned my room instead of plopping myself down in front of my computer as I had been doing the last month or so, cooked for my whole family and even did the dishes after that, am making an effort to pay more attention to the simple people that cross my way every day but which I usually don't give a second thought... ex: my doorman, bus drivers, my student's maid, and so on... I also reserved some extra time to spend with my sister whom I was neglecting lately using the typical "too much work" excuse, and most of all I am learning how to keep an eye open to the little things in life that constantly go by unnoticed, but that if we took the time to appreciate them our experiences in life would amount to so much more. 


Disclaimer: ALL NAMES ARE FICTITIOUS - dates, places and events are FACTS!!!