Thursday, October 06, 2005

from the heart

Part of my job involves having to visit prison's here in HK, to check up on the status of some of the people we are working with. First of all, unlike Filipino prison's, Correctional Facilities here in Hong Kong are efficiently run and the prisoners are even paid rather regular salaries for work they do on a regular day. Prison's here are often then not located in very quiet locations, the one I last visited was located near a reservoir, and you can actually see a slow cascade of water coming from the walls of the reservoir, as if like some screen saver.

Anyway, on one particular visit, I talked to one of our troubled kababayan's who had been arrested for something like six months already on a charge of trafficking unlawful substances. She had requested for an interview on the matter, and as a matter of course, I obliged. I won't go into the details of what she said, as these matters are best left for the records of the proper authorities. What struck me was the reason behind the fact she actually did the offense. Her story, like countless other stories I've heard, had to do with being hard up, a joyless family life, a child who is dearly loved, a wrong choice that has led to this situation. Yet it struck me, that despite these misfortunes, she looks at the situation and states that there must have been a reason behind this all, as God would not just generally allow you to fall into such a trap, without cause.

Maybe in such dire situations, one has to see the hand of God somewhere and to charge such a matter to experience as need be. Yes, we may have done something wrong, and it the narrow legal viewpoint, it was wrong, but you can't help but think that maybe someone out there has forgiven you already.

Regret and forgiveness can lead to redemption of the heart I guess, and I would like to think that such small acts such as this woman's change of heart and strong will to face whatever she has to undergo, is a lesson for us to live with the decisions that we make.

2 comments:

carlosceldran said...

Oh my goodness. How annoying to get these damn ads ruining a perfectly good blog. Check your templates section. There is something in there that helps verify the person posting and filter out these yukky ads. i had them all the time before.

Sidney said...

Bloghopped from Urbano's site.
Interesting blog!