I walked to the market tonight. Headphones in my ears - Taylor Swift singing about sweet, and sour romances in a far away land. A clash of worlds for sure as local women carried goods on their heads, trucks rumbling by- nearly knocking me off the side of the road. Trash lining the pavement, motorcycles passing with bundles of grass, or a goat hanging off the back. Dust filling my sandals, my mind wondering how the people and places I’ve seen and known can all fit in the same universe – an unanswered question I frequently wrestle with, but am slowly accepting as time goes by.
I smiled tonight at the construction workers with Pokémon t-shirts. I wished I had more time to spend with three school girls dressed in uniforms, and hair in braids, who came out from the ally by the medical shop. I felt myself getting angry when the pharmacy wouldn’t accept my credit card and I had to take a rickshaw to another area, withdraw money, and then return. I was faced with the fact once again that, for everyone around me, this is their life - no one was being paid to play a part in a reenactment. It’s their life – their real life. I wondered if the one-legged man begging for money would be classified as the ‘least of these’ and what my response should be. I laughed when I thought about when I used to live here… remembering how I endured and even enjoyed so much of life here that frustrates and confuses me now. I wanted to cry thinking about how God truly does give the grace needed for each and every moment.
“I said ‘remember this moment' in the back of my mind….” (Long Live, T. Swift)
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