The Sweetest Gifts

[orang37]

Sawasdee Khrup, TV Friends,

The other night I went to get a foot massage at a place near Thapae Gate; most of the employees of this shop are all from the same area of Issarn; there's one woman there who really "has the healing touch," and I've been going there for over three years.

About a year-and-a-half ago a young woman there (all of twenty-one or so) managed to get herself pregnant with some visting old cod/sod from a European country I won't name (why would she have unprotected sex with some old coot/loon ... ?); he went back to said European country, and over the months I watched her strong young frame fill out to encompass a giant watermelon of a nursery-belly. During that time I also saw she was depressed, restless; a family member told me that Mr. Old Europe never called, never came back.

Well, the baby's here now, four strapping months old and a giant whopper of a baby he is ! I mean he looks like a larval version of the Pillsbury Dough Boy (those of you from America will know what I refer to here). And he's so full of energy and happiness : I can see his mother's face in him. And she looks more at peace now; I'd say she's aged ten years in the last year; she's no longer a "girl."

So whilst having my foot massage, I got to play with the baby, and he really seems to like me, alternating playing with my face (strong grip he's got), trying to eat my watch. Jumping up and down as I hold him upright so he can balance. He's so beautiful !

After the foot massage, feeling in that ambrosial state of chuffness (thanks to my Australian friend for introducing me to the word "chuffed"), that wavy-gravy state of cosmic flow in which my human bag-o-bones, and my Orang soul-mind. are as at home with each other as sun and moon ...

I had just stepped outside, and put on my shoes; the baby's magic eyes and smile still lingering in my mind, like the Cheshire cat fading-out, leaving only a smile, in Alice's world, when an old Akkha woman came up with the usual roses. I said hello in Akkha, and bought one rose for ten baht from her, and wished her good luck and good health in Akkha (lachainmeeya), and turned away : she tapped me on the shoulder and, smilingly, gave me another rose.

I sometimes think that the very best things about living here are often the small things, small moments, unexpected gifts of life. I have friends in the US who sometimes ask me what my favorite things are in living in Chiang Mai, and I try and explain to them that my favorite things are very simple : like going to Talat San Pakhoi and buying fish (plaa too) for my cat, eggplant (ma keur). or bananas, whatever, for me, and the fact that people know me and smile, that they remember back when I had a broken leg in a cast and sometimes ask me (years later) how the leg is; or they remember when I weighed 165 pounds at the worst point in my cancer treatment (that's real skinny for this big farang frame) and ask me, with real concern, if the "maaraing" (cancer) has gone away.

It would be easy to dismiss this as just "pleasantries of strangers," but I don't.

Another moment : one of my almost nightly runs to the fresh soy milk vendor on Charoen Muang : the young woman (perhaps twenty or so) working there, daughter of the woman that runs the stand : on this day is selling some fresh lumyai : she turns to me, holding up a bunch of lumyai, and says "sweeesh" (meaning, of course, "sweet" in English) : her smile, the delight in her whole being in that moment, the way the sound of "sweesh" was almost like a song. How can I explain how beautiful that was ?

Sometimes I wonder if, in the long run, it is these small moments of what I call "miraculousness in ordinary" that really "stick around."

Here words fail me, but the heart does not.

best, ~o:37;

[zzdocxx]

Thanks!

[samuibeachcomber]

nice post orange37,and yes you are right its the simple things in life that bring the most pleasure,and that includes helping people where you can who are not so well off,but are obviously in desperate need for one thing or another,and it can give you great pleasure to help them,and there will always be a benefit to the giver as what goes round comes round,its the law of nature.'THERE IS MORE PLEASURE IN GIVING THAN RECEIVING"HAVE A HAPPY DAY."

[annabel]

Thanks for an uplifting post and making this Sunday a day to reflect more on the positive things of life.... .... Very refreshing !

[doppa]

the simplest things in life have and always provided the most loving times in my life, long may it continue, thanks for that.

[IanForbes]

OH, OH, my dear friend, Orang! Children have a way of grabbing your heart strings and not letting go!

Happened to me 5 years ago with a little girl I help support. If it was just her mother our relationship would have ended 4 days after we met. But, I visited the family and little Fong has truly grabbed my heart. Now she's a gangly girl of 8.

[Bolo]

I know what you guys mean. My visit to Chiang Mai was all about the simple things that made me love it so much. I've often wanted to leave my location here in the US and live there which i'm working on currently. Can't wait to make it my home.

[greedisgood]

Thanks orang ! I had one of those moments today. Looked at the smiles of the 2 youngsters I was hanging with today doing simple things. Especially when they were talking to their Mom. Priceless.

Here in CM I see those smiles more than anywhere else I have ever been

[anselpixel]

Thank you for this. It gives me hope at just the right moment.

[Thakkar]

Beautiful. Khun Orang, you seem to have found your valley of love:

'Tis the gift to be simple,

'tis the gift to be free,

'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

It will be in the valley of love and delight.

by Joseph Brackett, Jr., 1848

[eek]

Orang, I have the feeling that no matter where you lived, or what conditions you lived in, you would see beauty around you everyday. You are a breath of fresh air. Im sure you touch the hearts of many. Thank you for your inspiring words. Would you consider putting them together in a blog of some sort?

[losworld]

OH, OH, my dear friend, Orang! Children have a way of grabbing your heart strings and not letting go!

Happened to me 5 years ago with a little girl I help support. If it was just her mother our relationship would have ended 4 days after we met. But, I visited the family and little Fong has truly grabbed my heart. Now she's a gangly girl of 8.

Nice photo Ian... good to see some good Canucks out there in Thailand...

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Makes for a nice change from all the bad ones you mean?

[IanForbes]

Makes for a nice change from all the bad ones you mean?

Oh, I can be bad also. Sometimes I hold other little girls...

But they don't tug on my heart strings like little Fong and my granddaughters.

But, Orang is talking about everything and not just children. It's taking time out to smell the flowers and delight in watching others have fun. I have a friend with a pretty teenage daughter and it's fun watching all the shy boys she attracts. The young dudes want to make a move but have no idea how.