i tried to review my posts the previous year. i started with the january posts. what caught my attention was the one i did on old pedro the streetsweeper. it is very seldom that i see him now. it was said that he was again given permission to do odd jobs for the folks in our village. last december i was told he dropped by the house looking for me. i know he was expecting a gift from me. whenever i can, i try to give him something. up to this time, i have not met him yet. usually it is during the wee hours of the early morning, from 2:30 to 3:00, that i come across the old guy. during this time, he is already beginning his street sweeping. my guess is that the old guy is not being entrusted odd jobs anymore. i still have the one hundred pesos i set aside as my christmas gift to him.
i remembered hearing this from him once, last year, during one of our conversations: "boss," he said, "it is difficult to be old and still have to provide for one's family. my spirit is more than willing, but my old body can only do so much." he said this with a smile on his face but i know he is masking some pain inside. if only his family will be able to hear this lament. i just told him to take it easy and just do things which his body will conveniently permit him to do. he just gave me a weak nod and proceeded to battle the scattered leaves on the ground.
i distinctly remembered this because of something that i resolved to do this year -- that is, to devote more time to know my true self more. to let my mind to spend the bigger chunk of time looking inward, not outside. i have already examined things and i am definite i will never be able to find contentment hankering over the things outside myself. they offer only fleeting pleasures.
now, what i realized as an important lesson from old pedro's lament above is this -- that, i should try to do this inward gazing, this looking in, as early as now. while my body is not decrepit yet, while my body is not yet a captive of old age and its inconveniences. if i wait till i am old and my body is withered and plagued by diseases and old age miseries, then my mind will never be able to look into itself comfortably, because by then it will be besieged with the inconveniences of old age.
thus, we all have to consider the wisdom in old pedro's lament. we have to start now. begin early while the body is not beset with inconveniences. let us make the journey inward to where the Masters say we will rediscover our true nature.
we are not these bodies that decay and rot.
many of us might have received notebook planners as gifts. it will be very pleasing to see inside those planners this entry as a reminder --
today, i have completed my outer pursuits, having done so, i will now sit in a quiet corner, close my eyes, and look within, the Inner Me is beckoning, i will endeavor to learn more now of this stranger.
2 comments:
hmmm... sometimes such strange connections with strangers make me wonder...and as you said, instigates this urge to self introspection! weird.. ain't it!? and also, how such brief connections makes us yearn for more and more...but before we know it,it's gone. like breeze,just leaving it's sweet fragrance and warmth on our faces.. ah,nevertheless,thanks for sharing!
yes bani, it's such a wonder how brief encounters with total strangers elicit such inspired yearnings. yet, it is said that they are actually not strangers. they are people whom we have links even from past lives except that we cannot remember. that is why we must treasure every moment of personal contact even with people we hardly know, because every moment of contact is an opportunity to uncover or discover a lesson of Life and Being ..
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