I always look forward to my Saturday morning sports appointment in the Mt Fébé area. On this specific day after rigorously jogging and dancing (to the songs on my iPod shuffle), I decided to take a moment to enjoy the flowers in the flower garden of the Bastos round about. As I sat on one of the benches after a series of stretching exercises, I looked into the blue/grey sky and took a deep breathe just to feel the moment. I gave thanks for my life and for the many achievements, for good health and for the strength to do sports. I remembered that the easiest way to feel something is to cause another to feel it.
Just then I notice two young men picking up something in the gardens. Initially I thought they were harvesting mushrooms. Then I realized they were rather caretakers of the gardens; they were picking up dirt. I walked up to them and noticed it was peelings of sugarcane left by visitors to the garden, as well as fallen leaves from the flowers among other trash. I greeted them and started picking along with them. They were apparently overwhelmed and couldn’t help wondering why I would want to do such a thing. I smiled back and told them not to worry, let’s just work together…
One of the young men said to me in broken French, “You are really a nice Cameroonian; I have never met anyone in this country who is as nice as you”. From his accent I could tell he was from another French-speaking African country. His other companion was also very surprise that I joined them to pick up the trash.
One of the photographers in the garden walked up to me and said, “From every indication you are a housewife who likes working a lot”. I just smiled, marveled at his prejudice, said hello, and continued picking the trash. Another guy in the gardens who had been jogging asked me to carry him on my back so that he could do his stretching exercises, I told him I was busy, let him find someone else.
We worked for about 30minutes and the garden was now looking very neat and tidy. I was glad I had the opportunity to make the workers feel joyful, that someone could join them in their task that morning, thereby fastening the pace of the task. They gave me a tiny bar of soap to wash my hands at the nearby tap when we finished.
Usually after sports, I buy sugarcane to consume at home. I bought some on my way home and as I drove along, I felt true joy. It is said that the easiest way to experience something is to cause another to experience it, because we are all one. Words are so limited in explaining what the heart feels at times. It felt like a combination of satisfaction, excitement, blessing, fulfillment, enlightenment… When I got back home that morning, I settled down for a sugarcane treat after a warm shower. I realized that that particular sugarcane was the sweetest I had ever had!
2 comments:
T!!! God bless you! If you had only smiled (you usual charming smile) you'd have blessed those "dirt pickers" enough. But, God be blessed, you went further. That day, you were their angel. And did you say the devil came by in jogging suit to tempt an angel? The guy who wanted to stretch on your back, I mean. Who knows where next he'd have wanted to stretch? Like Jesus in the wilderness, you told him off. Bless you again, angel T! - Franklin Sone Bayen
Frank glad u deduced that urself abt the temtation thing...thx for reading!
T!
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