THE EYES THAT SEE ANGELS

My ward and her youngest son and I traveled for half an hour to Downtown Vancouver yesterday for supposedly a short walk prior to him going to Victoria. We dropped by Starbucks at Denman St. and had their coffee and me, Caramel Frappuccino.  We sat down comfortably on a black couch facing 2 single couches while we chat. Duncan told his mom that I was an English teacher in the Philippines but corrected him by saying I taught in a nursing school department in a University instead. The woman who sat across Duncan must have overheard (or must have been intentionally listening to) our conversations butted in and said something about "angel" and "nannies all over Downtown". I didn't actually understand what she've said but I remembered that I smiled at her with uncertainty. Duncan, however stopped talking. I thought that the lady must have said something nasty that silenced him. All throughout the time we stayed there sitting and sipping our orders, I have frequently glanced at the lady with the thought of her maybe being racist or degrading the work of others. There were even evil thoughts that crossed my mind that if this lady have said something bad or negative about these nannies, I won't hesitate to fire back. When I no longer contain my thoughts, I asked her what was it she said about the Filipino nannies. She said, "these people are angels", with a smile. She continued on to say that she frequently see nannies around the place and how much work they do for the babies or children they take care of. She said that "these people are very willing to work hard, extending hours of work without complain". I nodded to confirm her impression. Suddenly, my feeling of retaliation turned into a feeling of admiration. Not many people would agree on her but it sure is a good feeling to see someone see differently. I added that these nannies work hard not for themselves but for their families in the Philippines as well, and that they're very patient and easy to work with. "That's true, and I believe that majority of them do that", she said then put on her headset.             

I secretly took picture of the lady and as I take a look at the picture, random thoughts flooded my mind. This lady has an eye of compassion and she look beyond what the eye captures. She has respect to people and for the good things they do. She sees beyond physical appearance and appreciates inner beauty. Rarely can we come across this kind of people nowadays. Because these days, many of us judge others based on what we see. We judge people by their appearance or by the work they do. We tend to look down at people who do blue collar job and have a better treatment to people whom we thought have more money and are "successful".

I went home and brought with me the memory of that experience. I have to write it, I said. Because today, I learned that there are eyes that indeed see angels.