Meeting inspiration

I say, if your knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life.  ~Bill Watterson

For reasons not related to this topic I found myself this morning waiting for a local bank to open after spending over 12 hours in a cold hard night out in the open of an old road (time in which I made new unexpected friends and had a chance to play cards on top of a bucket — I mean, seriously, how can life not be great?)

Waiting in line I was preceded by an old lady. It would have been easy for me to ignore the lady but she made a comment that caught my attention, she said “Its a really cold morning, uh?”. Now, having spent over 12 hours out in the open facing the cold it was my opportunity to say “heck yeah!, and you should have seen at around 3 am, it was cold as hell (frozen hell that is)”.

Now, most small talk would end just there, but she went on to say that when it is cold in the city it means up on the hills is snowing, she justified her knowledge by mentioning that she has a small house up on the hills (there is a small town up there). She went onto mention that when it is cold up there she comes to the city where she has a small house as well.

Before I continue I have to say that this old lady would be easy to dismiss if you were to encounter her on the street, I mean, is not like she was pretty common but she had a very humble looking to herself, being about 80-ish and using a cane was not a particular identifying sign, but her clothing would make you think this old lady had a very hard living making ends meet. I know: “you shall not judge a book by its cover”, but that could be the first impression you would get.

So, here I am with an old lady that has 2 small houses she uses to escape heat in summer and cold in winter, nothing fancy so far, specially if you think that those 2 houses are probably no bigger than 1 or 2 rooms (again, based on the impression you get at looking her).  She then mentioned that her sons constantly urge her to sell her stuff up on the hill and move permanently in to the city to which she replies with a simple “they have no idea what they are talking”. All this time I am starting to enjoy her comments as I see a person that enjoys her few belongings. Notice I said few, not small, for she said that her small house up on the hills is placed inside a piece of land she owns with an area of about 245 acres.

If you are someone of age and you own a house, even a big house, 245 acres of land is pretty much out of reach for most earthlings in the present.

So conditions change, I am standing next to someone with a wealth in real-state (considering land up on the hills is quite valuable nowadays) , but still her sense of humbleness is only enhanced by this revelation. She continued talking and I see that here is a woman who has worked her whole life and continues to do so. She mentions she doesn’t understand how women with 1 or 2 children suffer from not being able to control them or even work and she says: “I had 25 children”…. Now my jaw drops

25 children! and she worked all her life to support them? Me and my wife we have one daughter and I have to confess sometimes it looks like it’ll never end. It blows my mind to think of someone with 25 children, working and having fun all the while.

And I say that she had fun because right then she revealed that on her small house (inside a humongous land) she has a small fire-place where she cooks very basic stuff that she enjoys while having a cup of coffee. Now, body language can’t lie, and her way to say that and her face made me feel certain that she truly enjoys the small pleasures in life (not like most of us who only say we do… but we don’t a lot of times). In other words, this old lady is the kind of people who when say ‘have a nice day’, they mean it.

She had about 900 animals (cows, hens, pigs, turkeys, sheep) on her land at one point in time, she sells ‘nopalitos’ (a commonly used vegetable in Mexico) on the street and that she can knit 8 hours a day if she needed money (she mentioned the amount of money she can make this way and all I can say is that it is about 80% of what I make a day… and she is only knitting).

She has over 100 grandchildren and great-grandchildren (combined of course) and has vegetable crops on her house and still a number of livestock so she can make anything she wants to eat without the need to go to a supermarket. She lives from the earth.

Our conversation was abruptly cut by the opening of the bank. The 15 or so minutes felt like 5 and I was left with a feeling of wanting to continue the conversation over a cup of coffee but I had to be somewhere else so I said to her in the most sincere way possible “It’s been a pleasure meeting you”. I had just met a person that enjoys life.

She shook my hand and went on to check something with a bank executive that gladly received her just as if he was receiving some oil-magnate up in Texas.

I finished at the bank and left. On my way I started to really digest the whole thing, I had a feeling of joy that stuck with me for the rest of the day. When I saw my wife afterward I told her the whole thing and I saw her eyes swell at the knowledge of such a person. I know there are a lot of examples of people like this old lady, but having the opportunity to meet her was a blessing.

I realized that even though I don’t place a lot of value in money, I am a money-pig compared to this woman, and that made me feel I can fix a few things in my life, which is a great feeling when you think that learning in life is one of the sweetest opportunities. Being a Buddhist-enthusiast I know I had just met a person with a wonderful Buddha-hood on her. I might even go on to say that I met an enlightened human being.

Now, some lessons:

• Life is about work, work is about life – When you work in your life and feel productive you can be sure life will be good.
• Enjoying life is about the small pleasures – Everyone knows this but is a truth that should be repeated more often
• If you want to work on a project in life make your family be that project – This lady repeated once and again that she worked for her family, she was blessed with a very large family
• Money is not everything – Again, a truth that needs more promotion (specially in this age). She had everything and money was not part of it

Later in the day some people felt like it had been a burden to spend the entire night awoke and on the cold, but, had I not do it I would not have been in the bank, and I would not have known this wonderful person. I feel glad I did.