Take the Time to Look

Yesterday, as I was holding a sick baby girl, I felt a connection I hadn't thought possible with someone I'd never met.  Trusting, accepting and completely content to just be held.  We sat there together, completely silent, for words weren't necessary.  Each feeling a peace that neither wanted to end.

As I looked at this child that I knew nothing about (not even her name), I saw a beauty of innocence that is often reflected in the faces of young children.  I didn't know her  past and I don't know her future, but for a few short hours we shared the gift of human touch.  It was all either one of us needed or wanted.  Everything else going around us faded and just didn't matter.

As I sat there thinking how beautiful this child was, I happened to look up and outside the housing complex.  As I sat there in the late afternoon under a palm tree rustling in the wind, I looked beyond the shacks and earthquake rubble and saw cascading flowering shrubs across the courtyard with the mountains surrounding Port au Prince in the distance.  If we only take the time to look, great beauty is often all around us.

In Cite Soleil, it's the smiles of the people who live in the slum.  In the Home for Sick and Dying Children, it's the heartbreaking touch and love shared amongst strangers.  At Grace Village, it's the joy and happiness seen in the faces of the orphaned children.

We only have to take the time to look.  We must take the tine to look or we will miss it forever.