FUNCTIONAL FAMILY
The Motorcycle
Is one of the most
beautiful inventions.
It is part of almost everyone’s heart. It
brings so much joy, happiness and friendship,
Especially when you ride it
with a sunny blue sky, green nature, and cut through the air as you cool down
in the heat.
It is even more beautiful
when you pull over to help Haitian refugees on the side of the road.
All of them wearing colourful outfits with
huge baskets of goods to sell for their
Families
I was riding fast and I
thought I saw something beautiful, I wasn’t sure if it was what I thought I
saw. I pressed the breaks, stopped further down the road, turned around and
went back. It was what I thought I saw and seeing it made me smile.
Something so simple but
so deep. Something hard but so honest.
I saw a family so poor
but so healthy.
I saw a young man with
his lovely wife and very young daughter just on the side of the road.
They were sitting in the
shade of an almond tree.
It was a hot summer day
and the man had no shirt on but had put a piece of cloth beneath his daughter
sleeping on the stones. He had a hammer in his hand and a big stone on the
ground. The man was going through the almonds one by one, breaking the flesh to
get to the shell and breaking the shell
To get to the almond
And his young lovely wife
sat beside him patiently watching him work. She had a bag of unshelled almonds
beside her.
I couldn’t speak Spanish
and they couldn’t speak English so with sign language I asked ‘is this your
only kid’ and he pointed with his finger to his wife’s stomach, she was
pregnant. Four people right on the side of the road, waiting patiently under
the almond tree for honest salvation.
He had a small yellow
container filled with almonds he had shelled. He reached out his hand and
offered me some almonds.
Although I was very
curious and I love almonds, I didn’t have the heart to take some. I saw so much
hard work for each almond, shelling them one by one. Out of consideration I
took just one and I gave him a big donation. It put a big smile on his wife’s
face and they both said many times ‘gracias, gracias, gracias’. It was so
priceless to see, he didn’t even have a bicycle but the family stayed together
to work together, so patiently and honestly. They passed the days together side
by side, good days and bad. There are so many healthy lessons in poverty. There
is so much love yet to learn from the poorest of the poor.
I got back on my bike with
a big smile again and continued riding fast cutting through the air while it
cooled me down.
I imagined the beautiful
scene I just saw, For a man,
Making his daily bread,
almond tree to almond tree to almond tree.
Then I said to myself,
‘Our father who art in heaven,
Give us this day our daily
bread and forgive us from trespassing as we forgive those who trespass against
us,
lead us not into temptation and deliver us
from evil
and let us get our daily
bread
under the almond trees, honestly, with our
Family
14 September 2009
08852