MY SISTERS OF THE WORLD

Driving my son to school I saw the old Korean woman from down the street taking her morning walk. She lives with her son and his family who own and operated the corner gas station and store. She speaks very little English so when I encounter her in the neighbourhood we can only exchange smiles and gestures. Her grandchildren have taught me a few Korean greetings but sadly I forget them before I get a chance to use them with their grandmother.

As I watched the old woman it struck me that she must be very lonely. Sure she has her family but I imagined the life she was missing. Back home she would have other old woman to walk with her, to gossip with her and chatter about their families and their friends together. On a morning like this she might be in the park doing her exercises along side others of her culture. She might sit for a while on a park bench and maybe she would even flirt with a few of the old men who were there for their morning social time. How different her life is here in Canada. How lonely she must be.

On my return trip I saw her again. She was harvesting something from the bushes along side the road. I wondered what it was she had found there and how she might plan to cook it for her family. Again I was struck by how alone she was while doing something that in her home country would have been a shared activity. I felt my eyes fill with tears and my heart quicken with sorrow for what this woman had sacrificed to be here for her family. I admired her strength and resilience. I admired her selflessness.

Going into the grocery story I saw a woman I’d seen once before. She was pushing a cart with a few empty bottles she had just collected from the garbage bin. Underneath there were some wilted lilacs and pansies that had been transplanted into styrofoam cups. When I’d seen her before it was Christmas time. I remembered giving her some food and some money. Like then my heart went out to this woman. She wore a brace around her neck and while she had done her best to dress and groom herself it was clear she was struggling to survive. You could see that she had great beauty that had been weathered by a difficult life of some 50 years or so I guessed. She had a kindness about her that did its best to mask her suffering. I asked her if she’d like the bottles that were rolling around in the back seat of my truck. As I loaded them into her basket I commented on her lovely flowers. She told me she was selling them to get money to fill a prescription of her medicines. I had no cash to offer her but wished her well in her efforts.

Coming out with my groceries I saw that she had stopped for a rest a few yards away from where I’d first met up with her. She was now sitting on the bench attached to her cart. Before she noticed me and turned her smile back on I was struck by the sorrow that defined her. She looked very tired and extremely weary of her life. Staring down at the ground in front of her she looked lost in her thoughts; deflated of hope. I approached her again with some offerings of food and a bit of loose change from my shopping. She was genuinely grateful and offered blessings in return.

Driving home I thought about the two women I’d been given cause to notice today. Displaced in our culture; alone in their reality even if for different reasons. Even if with different results. Was the cost to their spirit any different? Was one any less lonely than the other? Did one feel any more passionate about their life than the other? Had circumstances and choices worked against them in the end? I wondered how they both might answer the question had I been able to ask it of them. I wonder still what it is that gives them cause to rise each day and engage in the world around them. I admire their perseverance. I admire their determination. I admire their endurance.

I complain about my own lot from time to time. Today I was given cause to count my many blessings. I live in my homeland -- the land of my cultural ancestors since the beginning of my family’s time. I have a home of my own and friends and family to fill it with sounds of chatter and laughter and music. I earn enough money to pay the bills and indulge in extra pleasures from time to time. I am free of addiction and generally pretty healthy. I go to sleep every night knowing I am safe and exactly where I want to be. I rise every morning knowing I have food in my cupboards, a child to feed and friends to invite for tea.

I go to bed tonight praying for my sisters of the world who struggle to survive. Who are alone due to great sacrifice. Who are alone in a crowd of strangers. Who are alone due to isolation. Who are alone due to illness. Who are alone due to neglect. Who are alone due to abuse. Who are alone to survive each day alone.

I pray for their safety and I pray for their joy. May their life provide them with cause to rejoice. May their life bless them with love and inner peace. May I not take for granted the love, joy and peace that blesses my life day by day. May I know how to support my sisters of the world who struggle for one reason or another just to survive -- to live one day at a time free from harm; free from lonliness. May I not forget how my heart quaked for my sisters today. May it inspire me to be of service to my sisters of the world. In prayer and in deed every blessed day in my life; supporting my sisters of the world.