On Confessions...

Here is where  I live. Down the street from the vacant lot where this little group of kids was picking fruit one day.

This little doll has some greenery that will probably grace the soup pot tonight. Kids that have only ever lived hand-to-mouth... In a much more literal sense than Americans do.

I walk past this beautiful flowering bush that is situated right across from... well... the gate. I guess its true confession time.
I live in a gated community.

You can see the guard house on the right here, and the really nice condos on the left. Where houses like this and cars like this also live.

And honestly, although my standard of living is much different from some of my neighbors', I feel so rich.

Because I even within our gates, I walk past other neighbors. These are houses, and people live in them.

Some of my neighbors are not even human. One day I took my camera around the neighborhood to see the sights.

This fellow lives just two blocks from me. I encountered him one morning on a run.

And even within the walls of my community, there is the banana grove, and that random dirt road that wanders off mysteriously. Of course, I followed it. There at the end stood a little tin shack. Home for somebody.












The planks that are a bridge stretch over the puddle, and the typical 'slippers' sit outside waiting to take their owner for a walk. Right down the road is this cute little goat. I may buy him in chunks one day at the market.

And then, on the other edge of the community, there is the wall. Topped with barbed wire, it keeps the rich in, and the poor out. Yet here is the inequality and injustice, displayed for all to see.

Life from the other side of the fence.

When I climb my water tank in the back yard, I can see it all. I can see over the walls into a different way of life. And what floors me every time is that I live in a good neighborhood. The people whose lives I can peek into, many aren't even poor by Filipino standards.

But I'm glad to have them all so close. It is good to see the poverty and pain. To daily be reminded of how blessed I am. To reevaluate priorities with a bigger picture in mind. These things that are so important to us... earthly possessions... they have no eternal value. It is such a good reminder that my treasure lies elsewhere. A good chance to reflect, and make sure it stays that way.