Warong life lesson.....

The other morning, I stopped by at my favourite breakfast stall - Pak Din warong for my usual breakfast fix of roti tampal, roti kosong and one nice cuppa of teh tarik kurang manis. Sure miss this warong after a month of closure due to Ramadan and Raya celebrations. As usual, the stall was filled with customers of different shapes and sizes; all trying to get a place to plonk their butts and get their hands going by tearing up the succulent and crispy roti canai. Being alone, it was easier for me to get a seat  for myself as I am not particular of choosing seats as I am an advocate that if there is an empty seat, take your butt over, sit down and wait for your food fare to come! 

As usual, I sat at one of the tables and shared the table with a pair of elderly folks. I had asked permission if I could sit at the table and they smiled as they asked me to join them at the table. As it was a long table, soon, another young couple joined our table.  The food came and the elderly folks were enjoying their meal just as I started to down my roti canai tampal down the throat; washing it down with a good douse of teh tarik. As I tore the next mouth size bite of roti canai, I could see the that elderly woman was asking her husband if she should packed some food for the children. She was insistent that they would love to have roti canai and lontong for their breakfast. She went on to tell her husband how the children loved the local food fare and how close they were then. The elderly man nodded in silence as he ate his food quietly. The elderly woman went on and on about how nice it was to have the children sharing a meal at the table during the earlier times oblivious to my presence there. 

It was thoroughly interesting for me as a mother spoke so eloquently fond of her children and what they used to do when they were younger. All this while the elderly man just nodded his head with an occasional crack of smile at the corner of his mouth. The elderly man finally spoke out later and told his wife that the children had all grown up and they would be able to fend for themselves after all these years. Afterall, they would be going back to the respective towns after spending two days with them over the Raya holidays. I could see the elderly woman just stopped in her tracks and answered that she was aware of it with a downcast look to go with it. Her head hung down and low as she munched on her food. I guess, that's mother's love for her children. I could see that there was so much emotion and so much passion etched on her face as she spoke on getting the children to come back for weekends.  Her husband just looked at her, patted her hands and said that they will be alright together.  There was such a great smile spreading across her face and I was sure joy spread through that moment as though it was frozen in time. I could also sensed that the young couple was watching the elderly couple and listening intently as I was towards the elderly couple.

As the elderly couple excused themselves and was long gone from the table, the young wife whipped out her handphone and made a call to her parents. I could hear that she told her parents that she would be back in the coming weekend to visit them. The guy seemed puzzled a bit by it all but he seemed to be strangely happy too. The woman soon lifted up her head and our eyes locked. She smiled and I smiled too. It was as though I could feel that she missed her parents too. I smiled as I nodded my head and she just smiled and turned away. No words needed to be said as it was a universal understanding what it meant to miss your parents presence as we moved on in our busy daily lives.

Like I always say, you learn priceless life lesson from the most unexpected places in your daily lives. I certainly enjoyed my life lesson that day. I know that you will too when you learn to see people for who they are and enjoy the simpler things in life in a spectrum of perspective. Be encouraged and be blessed each day. We all are a lesson to one another - either we are a lesson or we are a blessing to each other. You make the good choice, you hear?