Kind & Gentle

It’s been a long time since I’ve written a personal post. I’ll take the opportunity now while my heart is still full about this.

Yesterday I met a family that really made me think about life. It made me stop, think and ponder about where I am now and what I might end up becoming. How big all the possibilities of life can be, depending on which road I choose to take and what baggage I bring. I’m blessed to be where I am now, getting to meet many new people all the time in this line of work and learning from each of them. The world is indeed so big. I feel so small, but it’s not a bad kind of small, it’s a wonder kind of small.

With every photoshoot I take comes different challenges, personalities and enjoyment. I’ve met people who each had a different background and view on life and love; other people clearly confused or wandering in constant pursuit for the pleasures of this world, some people firm in their own beliefs or wise enough not to hold on to anything too tightly, and others just living in the moment making their world as small as possible (they worry the least). And most of the time it didn’t matter if they were old or young.

The meeting with the family I was talking about yesterday came very unexpectedly. I declined many times before she begged me so so nicely I lost the heart to refuse. They came from the province with little free time and have a satellite home here just for the protection of their children. So there are lots of dangerous people with ill intentions around our neighboring provinces, most especially down south. But that is another story for others to tell.

It was a special meeting of sorts just to help them with basic photography. I spent four hours with a mom, son and daughter. They were the nicest and sweetest clients I have yet to meet, and considering their worldly blessings the most down-to-earth ever imaginable. It might be just any normal encounter for anybody, but that very normal encounter really made me think about life in general– about how touching it is to me that they remained as simple, humble, kind and gentle despite being so wealthy (and maybe traumatized a little from the dangers), and how their children echoed their mother’s gentleness by their being so grounded despite having all the things they could ever want. What I’m saying is, I witnessed a stereotype being invalidated right before my eyes and it renewed my spirit. Their kindness and gentleness made me feel like butter on a sweet croissant; it made me want to hug them for being such wonderful people.

I know it’s bad to believe in stereotypes, but you have to admit that when you get to meet someone who breaks one, it does renew the spirit! There are many other lessons I’ve learned but it would be too long to enumerate all of them. I’m just really happy inside to meet refreshingly nice people who are sincerely generous and gracious towards others. Sometimes we all need that break when the industry we’re in compels most people to be wild, selfish and world-trendy.

One important thing I do want to share is how children will mostly be the reflection of their parents. This is NOT the case ALL the time, as a disclaimer. But in many cases it is unknowingly true. Try and think about it, is it true in your world?

Kind and Gentle Parents = Higher chances of Kind and Gentle Kids that grow up to become Wonderful People

Of course the kids will have different personalities. But I mean getting down to the nitty gritty (the side most people don’t see at once but is most important), on the inside they will echo the hearts of their parents–whether they saw them as gentle, kind, abusive, prideful, selfish, superficial, hardworking, wanderlusting, etc. So let’s do the world a favor by deciding what we want ourselves to pass on to the next generation, because character building will take a long time to become our nature. And the building process will never end because we can never be perfect no matter how hard we try, we have to keep being open to learning and learning. Right now I know my age group (early twenties) is about trying to find ourselves and what we want to become. This is part of that, of finding ourselves and what traits we want to have. Nobody is born kind and gentle, it will always be a practicing choice. The first step is being kind and gentle to yourself because it opens doors to being kind and gentle towards others.

 Who doesn’t get stress relief from feeding cute birds?

Thank you to my dear sister for this photo and for this particular day with her family. It’s always amazing when animals learn to trust people because we’re the harshest towards each other.