Eye opener

Love is not blind, it simply enables one to see things others fail to see - Anon

They were sitting across from me. If one would warrant a guess, this would be their first time on the LRT. So there they were, two very impressionable young girls accompanied by an elder sister and her boyfriend. Giggles and laughs punctuating fresh enthusiasm, innocence and simple awe at grandeur of the big city. It was a scene to be had in every nook and corner of the city if one looked hard enough, but the difference here was that both girls were visually impaired.

As much as I know how rude it was to stare, I couldn’t stop stealing glances at them. The way they had so much to laugh at. The way they found light and goodness and joy in darkness. It was hard describing what I felt the entire journey back home after that. I’ll be turning 21 really soon and as each day passes I find myself feeling weary and tired. Jaded and old. I’ve forgotten what it felt like to be touched. And in that 30 minute ride, I found myself remembering.

It wasn’t lewd the way the guy couldn’t keep his hands off his girlfriend. The way he just had to reach out and tuck in that stray lock of hair. The protective nature that becomes instinctive. And in that one moment when he reached out and ran a finger down the youngest girl’s cheek, when she looked up and bestowed the most brilliant smile ever upon a loved one whose face would forever remain a stranger’s, I was touched. Could it be that in our quest to see more, experience more, gain more, reach more, we’ve forgotten to stop and live in the moment?

It made me feel ungrateful, the way they seem to have nothing and feel as if they have everything, but I have everything in comparison but feel as if I have nothing. Ironic, how it took a person who could not see to make me see.