We live in a beautiful and broken world. Many times I don't understand it. I don't know why the boy in the gang has to murder to keep himself safe, I don't understand why teenagers don't go to school to keep their street rep, I don't understand the hardships that a person has to go through on a daily basis just to get food for themselves let alone others. No, I don't understand. I don't understand why I was given the life that I have been, traveling to places around South Africa that many people who live here haven't even gotten the chance to see. I don't understand how to process it all but I am gradually learning. I've learned that when a child sees balloons they will smile and their eyes light up. I've learned that the only form of fun one little girl may have will be to spend the day chasing the butterfly that is fluttering around the dust streets. I've learned that the David, the homeless man on the street, loves to tell his story, to someone who is willing to listen. I've learned that learning is a beautiful thing, but it is also difficult. It is difficult not knowing how to process what you have learned or seen as you may be dealing with things that are completely different from anything ever experienced, seen, or heard of before. I have learned that once I have learned something, I can never take that knowledge away. I want to share that knowledge with the world and yet, realize that some already know what I know, and much more, whereas others haven't had the same experiences as I have had. Each person comes into life with a different perspective shaped by experiences whether positive or not. We can all learn and grow from one another and I realized I have much more room to grow.
When speaking to one of my closest friends at home today, whom I love and cherish and truly respect and look up to, I realized the mistake I have made with my learning process. I want people to understand everything I have experienced that I haven't even looked at what someone else has to bring to teach me. Yes I have more room to grow, as does everyone, and who better to learn from then each other from our own different and yet similar experiences. I am not the same person I was before coming to South Africa, and I am thankful for that. I am also thankful to have the opportunity to come to this incredible place and learn from all that is in front of me. I am excited to come home and apply what I have learned to a place that seems so very far away from me at the moment. This world IS a beautiful place, and I intend to find the beauty in even the most broken of places, people, and experiences. I intend to find the hope that sometimes seems so far away. I don't intend to change the world. That would be a bit ambitious of me. No I won't change the world but I expect the world to change me. If it doesn't then what have I learned from my short time here? The world is what it is, and if I can let my positive ways of thinking have an impact on just one person, and if I can bring a smile to one persons face I feel as if I have done my job. For our greatest duty is to love and be loved in return, giving and receiving, the circle of life, love, and all that jazz ;)
A quote that I received today proved as a reminder of two very important things I am coming to terms with here, patience, and faith...or as alexander dumas puts them, waiting and hoping. “All human wisdom is summed up in two words,-wait and hope.”
-Alexander Dumas’s
We wait for progress, change, answers, love, people ect. and we hope for the best. We hope that we CAN make a difference. We hope for a better world. We hope and hope and hope and eventually the spread of hope ignites this passionate fire where hope turns to action and change starts to happen.
From a hopeful believer in the goodness of this world,
sending my love to you all, here there and everywhere.
<3 mia <3
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