These days I am working out the glitches of my new life and what I need to do to make ends meet as a single mom.
Becoming a single mom of two, has had me reflecting on so many different things. I remember saying about a month ago, that in some ways, I can relate to what a refugee may feel when they are escaping a war torn country.
I was displaced from what I knew and while there was a relief to it there was also a great sadness for what was lost and what I thought I knew.
With that thought in mind: I want to share with you something that happened yesterday while I was getting that learners license I told you all about in social media yesterday!
After getting my learner's license all set up (a huge win for me!), my creative little mom and I decided to have a break. While we were sitting talking and snacking, yes it was french fries, a woman with her two beautiful daughters no more than 5 and 8 walked up to our table. She had a beautiful blue scarf wrapping her hair and her daughters had these brown sparkling eyes and smiles on their faces to match. To say they were radiant would be an understatement.
They held a neon colored bristol board that had written on it in giant lettering:
THANK YOU CANADA.
Syrians Love Canadians
The oldest girl handed my mom a rose as a thank you. A gesture of gratitude for being able to escape to a place of safety. My moms response was instantly to grab these little girls and hug them. They couldn't speak much English but the message of genuine gratitude was clear.
I wish I could have taken a picture to capture the moment. In my heart it is clear because I saw in that moment the reflection of my own newly acquired life. The mixed emotions, the joy, the unknown, the future, and the right here right now.
For me this moment brought tears to my eyes. Here this woman was with her two babies fleeing God only knows. Here I am fleeing a situation with my two babies and while we can tell you what we have lived through or felt only God knows for sure what it was really like behind closed doors. You just want people to realize that the smile on your face is from pure gratitude and a thankful heart that you could break free and escape something no one can possibly understand unless they lived it or experienced abuse.
I do not know what it is like to hear gunfire, bombs and having to run in the night in a war torn land. I do know the feeling of displacement. Having to leave what you knew. Having to endure a war of sorts in what was my home.
What I took away from this encounter was that despite the ugliness life can throw at us there is always and I mean ALWAYS, something to be grateful for.
I am grateful for this woman and her two dear little girls and the bravery, the courage they have had to use, to come to a foreign place and bare their smiles for us all not knowing if they will be welcomed or turned away.
I am happy to say I saw so many smiles onpeoples faces who received roses and saw the signs of gratitude and love being held up by this group of beautiful human beings.
I am going to ask myself everyday what is here today, that I can be genuinely grateful for? Really truly grateful. What have I experienced that I can be grateful for? Then I can hold these gems in my heart, I can look ahead to the horizon and know that there is so much beauty, so much to keep striving for, one step at a time come what may.