I was on a high today, overwhelmed at how I can receive so many gifts all in just one day. I also felt foolish at how often in the past, life’s everyday-gifts were unnoticed simply because I was too busy thinking and doing I-don’t-know-what.

Here are a few of today’s remarkable gifts:

-After ten long months, I started my first day on a job that I have LONG WAITED to do. This alone was more than enough already considering all my agony of waiting but no, there’s more.

-After five long years, I was able to attend a flag ceremony again!I enjoy flag ceremonies because I really like our national anthem. It’s unfortunate that I only get to sing it on those rare occasions when I get to the theater early enough before the movie starts and those few special events in UP where the national anthem is sung. Now I’d be singing it every Monday together with a crowd of public servants! (Of course, singing it in my room is entirely a different thing.) What great privilge it is to be free!

-Met another hero named Deb. She’s from Bulacan and commutes daily to work at Land Bank Malate. She works as a bookkeeper there, on a contractual basis for only three months. I didn’t even have to ask about her salary. From the look of it, I knew it was nothing much. But once again, I was just blown away at how she didn’t really care much about it. She surprised me when she expressed great interest in working for the government. I find it foolish how I even intended to ask her why she wouldn’t consider working in a call center because there she’d get a higher pay. Good thing I didn’t, I would have only embarrassed myself then. I really have to change this thinking that just because people need money doesn’t mean that all of them work just to earn lots of it. I’ve gotten used to hearing stories from people complaining about low pay and considering the salary first in choosing a job before everything else. Oh well, not everyone craves money like some people do.

-At the bus terminal, while waiting for the bus to be full, I saw a garbage collector pushing his kariton. He went directly to the garbage can and scouted for some stuff that he could make use. I honor him for actually offering a few peso coins to the man in charge there in exchange for the few plastic bottles he got from the trash bin. How honest can you get! And how honorable for a man to brave the heat, the pollution, the stress to look for recyclable garbage just to feed his family in the most decent way he can. Unbelievably great!

-While on the bus, we passed by a woman inside a kariton talking to someone and laughing her heart out. What hope she has in her heart to be able to laugh like that. Some people live in mansions and drown in money but could never afford to laugh like that.

-When I got off the bus, I passed by a middle-aged woman with a child. She asked me for pamasahe. I didn’t look back and since I usually walk very fast, I didn’t get the chance to see her face or her expression. I was really bothered until I got home. What if she really needed pamasahe? Why did I allow myself to doubt the goodness that lie deep in the heart of every person? My initial thought was that maybe they were just part of syndicates trying to get money from people. But even so, I mean how much was she asking for anyway right? It would have cost me just a few pesos that’s why I felt so guilty. Now I’ve learned and so next time I shouldn’t be in a hurry to get home (or at least walk slower) because it feels really bad when you’re given the opportunity to be a blessing to others and you miss it. The good thing is that the world doesn’t crumble even if I messed up like that or was just a little too busy, preoccupied perhaps, and yes, tired. Good thing we have a God! He’s never too busy, too tired nor too preoccupied to NOT notice EVERY single person in the whole world who is in need. He’d take care of that woman, I’m sure.

Commuting to work and back can be tiring, yes. And should I even mention traffic? But the road offers so many priceless gifts. Gifts that you could never lose even if fire burn down your house or some thieves broke into your vault. Their value doesn’t diminish even if you lose a leg! In fact, if ever you do lose your leg or some other body part, their value would even be greater because then you will realize that you are blessed to have received the more important gifts. Because these gifts, more than anything, unbelievably change your heart and feeds it with a great mixture of joy and sadness at the same time. But more importantly, they give you hope — that life is still so sweet and beautiful, amidst all.

All it takes to avail of these gifts is to have an open heart and of course, OPEN eyes (plus, preferably a window seat on the bus).

And it’s only just my first day. =)