day twenty-three.

So yesterday, I finished watching The Blind Side before my shift ended (oh yes, I multitask), and at the end of the movie, I understood why my friends were all raving about the movie: because it’s good. Really good. I thought it would make me cry, like Hachiko did, but it tugged at my heart strings, and it made me feel really good after the end of the movie.

I think I just found my new feel-good movie. :)

Anyway, I think the thing with The Blind Side is it shows a side of humanity that we all wish to see more often. Here’s a big guy, who has been cheated out of a family, a good home and basically a good life, and there’s this woman who has all three and more, and yet sees beyond herself. She didn’t do anything too extraordinary — she just loved in a way that she knows. She loved unconditionally. She loved like Jesus did.

And I think that kind of kindness is what we are all looking and hoping for, and ultimately, what we’re all wishing to be able to do ourselves.

I know I do.

The movie reminded me of those days when I would spend every weekend in our Gawad Kalinga site. Back in college, YFC (Youth for Christ) was almost half my life, and being in YFC also meant I was quite active in Gawad Kalinga, since we handle that. I was almost a mainstay of our GK site in Baseco, and the best days of my summer were spent at a GK site too. I can talk about GK all day long, and I used to dream of the day when everyone I know would be involved in it as well.

It’s been so long since I have last been to any GK activity, much less to a GK site. I guess, when I graduated, I just didn’t find make enough time to continue volunteering. I know there’s no one else to blame but me, because I let life overwhelm me…and it’s kind of sad. I see old friends who’s made GK a part of their lifestyle, and I wonder…what could have happened if I also did the same thing? What if my life was more involved in volunteerism and outreach? What if I spent more time in GK sites than thinking about buying stuff?

That’s why I connected with The Blind Side so much, because…well,I want to do something like what Leigh Anne did. Do something to change someone’s life, and have a chance for someone to change my life as well.

A friend once told me that a Christian soon learns to hold not only a Bible but a newspaper as well — it tells us that a Christian does not only read God’s word and believes in it, but a Christian also reads the newspaper to know what’s going on and to do something about it. It doesn’t have to be something big or earth shattering. Sometimes a simple act of kindness to another person is already a big thing.

So now that I’ve written about this…do I have the courage to actually set out and do things and reach out? What am I going to do about it now?