Listen

Tatay Junior sat down beside us with great effort to listen in on my conversation with some children here at Waltermart. I watched him painfully make his way to where we sat, before I even began talking with them. It took him more than 5 minutes to walk 20 steps. But it didn't take long for him to join in.

I love listening to the elderly. They have a lot of stories to share. One of the best realizations I learned from this practice is that life isn't about me. I used to lie down on the sidewalk with some street dwellers in Pasay at 2AM exchanging stories with them as we shared raisins and wheat bread. I am amazed at the eagerness in their voice how they yearned to tell their stories. To let anybody know they existed. I enjoyed losing myself in Junior's random stories of movie shoots around the area where I live, about the famous Filipino actor Fernando Poe Jr., about farm lands, about biking in his youth, and about losing the feeling of his left leg. I was thanking the LORD as I listened to him, looking intently into his eyes, trying to make him feel that his life's story, however trivial it may sound, mattered. He was a human being with dignity, made in the image of God. I asked if I can take a photo of his hands and he agreed. It must have been a strange request for him. But I wanted a glimpse of his life by admiring his hands. Someday, Lord willing, I would look at my own hands and see where I was when I took this picture.

The LORD gave me wounds that taught me profoundly how every person has a story to tell, and that listening was a more viable avenue of compassion compared to giving unsolicited advice. Recently there was a skateboarder who, at age 22 and at the height of his career, committed suicide. Family and friends were devastated. It's astonishing to know how many people have taken their own precious lives just because they had nobody to talk to. If only Christians were compassionate enough to consciously make an effort to lend an open ear to anyone who needs it.

These two handsome boys were working when I approached them. I was giving away tracts to passengers boarding the jeepney terminal when I was led to talk with them. They were offering assistance to patrons coming out of the grocery asking for spare change in return. They earn a dollar for a whole day's toil. . I told them to pull up their masks for this picture, but they said it was alright. Now I have something to remember them by.

Surprisingly, RJ gave good answers about the Lord. More than his friend and co-worker here. They told me stories about their family, their siblings, how hard it is on most days to earn, and troubles. We talked for a good while about those things. My mind couldn't quite grasp life from their end as we did. They had realizations about man's rebellion and propensity for sin, and God's love through His Son.

I am so helpless. But my God is a helper of the fatherless. Tatay Junior tells me he still thanks the Lord for each passing day, and he adviced the young ones to do the same. Life, broken down to the bare minimum is simple. Do what is right. Love mercy. And walk in humility before God. Society has a weird way of complicating things.