Don't just count your blessings....Share

We have already heard about a lot of people doing good deeds for others. It is something not entirely exclusive to known philanthropists. Good deeds are welcome in any form, from whoever to whomever. What counts most is the way that the good deed benefits the recipient. But it benefits the giver too. Big time. Maybe not in kind but in the immeasurable amount of joy that the act gives the giver.

It is a revelation to know more about my "new" friend Myra, actually my agent who provides me with work online, along with her two other partners Cheng and Issa. Our acquaintance that used to be purely on a professional/business level has opened up to the more personal level comfortable enough to share bits of other information about ourselves outside of work.

It is a blessing to know that she has started a small. personal crusade to help out streetchildren in Pagbilao, Quezon in whatever way she can. Mostly by providing food to these hungry children.

Her "love affair" with the children began months back in the parish church she attends in Pagbilao. The children who were asking churchgoers for alms caught Myra's attention and she was inspired to reach out and feed them. Every Sunday since then, it has become her regular thing to meet with the children and take them to a place where they can eat together. It is nourishment for the physical body that she offers the kids but I am sure her act nourishes not only the body but the spirit of the children as well by being shown how it is to be loved and cared for.

These children have families and homes of their own but with different circumstances and just the general hard life that is common everywhere, they are compelled to ask for alms, beg other people for money or anything to tide them over. For people like Myra who care to be aware of what is happening and decide to act on it, it has planted a small seed of compassion in her heart that now has grown and nurtured by her bigger desire to do more and reach out.

When I asked her what gives her inspiration to do what she does and to continue to hope that she could do more, she said just realizing each day that she wakes up to a new morning, that she is alive to greet the day everyday, makes her feel thankful. When she sees the state that these streetchildren are in, it makes her feel thankful that she is not in their position ~~ that she has a different lot in life.

Upon reflection, she thought about herself in comparison with the children. She eats more than three meals a day, wears signature clothes and lives in a comfortable home. It is hard not to see the advantage she has over these children.

She believes in counting her blessings. That everyday, what anyone who feels overly depressed could simply do to fight the depression is to look around and realize how much luckier he/she is than the streetchildren. Thus, she not only counts her blessings..but shares them...wholeheartedly...lovingly.

Christmas 2008 was Myra's big day for her "children". She went out of her way to wrap gifts for them and treat them to an afternoon of fun, games and gift-giving. She counted her blessings. She shared her blessings...and HOW! You could just see the act of kindness reflected on the 17 smiling faces in the pictures below.

Myra is not a native of the province of Quezon. She comes from Manila, yet she finds it in her heart to pour out her compassion and love for her "children" in Pagbilao. This proves that compassion knows no regional affiliation. That love for mankind is not exclusively given to people from your own province. It comes out of one's heart and knows no restriction who to give it to. Myra has bigger dreams, maybe too big for now ~~ perhaps a "home" for the homeless children and maybe more...education, livelihood, who knows what other gifts a loving heart could give?


(pls click on the pics for a larger view)