Gratefulness

6/365 Days of Happiness: When Letting Go of Something so Little Means A Lot

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Sampaguita is the Philippine national flower, but whenever I see sampaguita garland I associate it with gratefulness rather than nationalism.

I feel safer in a cab when I see sampaguita garland hanging in front mirror. It somehow assures me that the driver is God-fearing and that garland is an expression of his faith. Most Catholic Filipinos would understand this association.  Sampaguita garlands are sold in front of churches and people buy them and offer them to statues or images on their altar at home. 

That's what I imagine this water vendor I observed one Friday would do when he gets home. 

It was Friday afternoon. Traffic was heavy as expected. I already had good one-hour nap but I was still in Magallanes.  I was thinking of transferring to MRT to get to work faster but seeing that the queue to MRT snaked around the Alpha South building somewhat discouraged me so I stayed in the bus and for the lack of things to do while our bus crawled in traffic-jammed EDSA, I just went on to observe the goings on. 

The one that caught my attention was this water vendor that got on our bus in Ayala. It looked like his day was done. His pail and Styrofoam box (used for carrying bottled water) were both empty. He was going home. 

In a smaller street after Ayala, there was a sampaguita vendor. The water vendor alighted from the bus, leaving his pail and Styrofoam box in the bus, went ahead to buy sampaguita garlands. Unexpectedly, traffic got better and the driver just sped away. The bus conductor looked worried as she checked on the water vendor, who was running as fast as he could so he could catch up. Fortunately, he did.

What made me appreciate this moment is that this man alighted from the bus to buy those garlands. He could be earning so little but he was willing to let go a portion of it so there’s something he could offer at the altar – a sign of his gratitude. It’s a little portion, but it meant a lot.