Raindrops

There really isn't much that you can do when you're stuck in traffic on Ayala Avenue and it starts to rain.

Not much but wait for the lights to change, the cars to move, pedestrians cross and time to just pass you by.

And then again, you could watch the rain.

It wasn't a heavy downpour this morning. It was more of a light and continuous shower -- just a little stronger than a drizzle.

As I sat in the back seat of the cab, I took special notice of the beads of rain that fell and clung onto the glass of the window. These little "orbs of water" ranged in size from less than a millimeter to probably two or three millimeters in diameter.

I noticed something that has always been right in front of me everytime it rained.

Every once in a while, a single bead would start to move down the glass surface. Whether caused by gravity, another drop of rain, the wind or the mild surface vibration brought about by the vehicles’ engine wasn’t important. The fact is, a bead or two would start to slide downwards.

Then it would eventually hit another bead – and they would merge into one and slide further downward, slightly faster this time, until it hit and merged with another bead, and then another, and then it would be much bigger than the original bead, and gravity would just do the rest and pull the “now enlarged” bead quickly down the rest of the way.

And then there were the other beads of water.

Some were just so big and heavy on their own that they slid down the glass surface almost as soon as it hit the glass. Others, for one reason or another just “clung” onto the surface and never seemed to be affected by other beads, the wind, the vibration or just about anything else that caused other beads of water to slide down the glass slope.

Amazing how people are much like these beads of water.

We all have our problems – some face bigger problems than others – but they are problems nonetheless. BUT, how we allow these problems to affect us – AND other people around us – is the source of our similarity with raindrops on a glass surface.

Some people are the beads of water that start their downward journey. They have problems that just seem to keep weighing them down. For them, life seems to have no “brighter side”, and every turn is just another slide further downward. When these kind of people start to unburden themselves upon others, they somehow take the other person down with them. In their depression, they seek the help and comfort of friends and family, but because of their own stubbornness, instead of accepting the encouragement of others, they take down with them those whose help they sought out in the first place.

Which leads us to the next group of people and the second kind of bead of water: the beads that somehow find themselves in the downward slope of the problematic? These are people who always seem ready to listen and to extend a helping hand – always with good intent.

But if these people are not deeply rooted in their faith – if they are not strongly convicted in their ways – not only will they not be of help, but sooner or later they will find themselves being pulled down by the very people they tried to help in the first place.

There are also those people who get in the way of the hopelessly problematic. They aren’t really involved, but just because they are in the way of this beads’ downward slide, they become victims who soon find themselves being pulled down by the first bead’s problems – often against their will. These are the victims of circumstance: the bystander who gets shot in crossfire between police and car thieves; the depositor who gets shot by robbers holding-up a bank; or the unborn child killed in the womb of a woman who gave in to desperation at becoming pregnant out of wedlock.

And then there are those who have found their place on the glassy slope – and stayed there.

They may listen and sympathize with the problematic – but they know how to keep enough distance so as not to join the downward slide of the hopelessly depressed.

They are those who can withstand the problems and trial brought about by the wind, the vibration brought about by the vehicles’ running engine or, for some reason, do not get hit by other raindrops.

These are the people who have rooted themselves well in their faith, and who have chosen to learn from their own trials and have chosen to “be firm and steadfast”, thus possessing the land on which they stand.

People are the raindrops. The glass surface is life. The wind, rain and engine vibration represent the trials, tests, problems and challenges we face as a result of our own or another persons’ or peoples’ mistakes.

Which raindrop would you be?