outside looking in....

I love to watch people. It makes me a more observant person overall and I am trying to learn to be more open and accepting. When "people watching" it is important to remember you are seeing something that could represent that person's life, their fears, their dreams.
I am engaged at the park these mornings as I watch this mexican gentleman come with his children. They come early for school, parking their van in the lot at the bottom of the park. The 3 boys fall out of the van immediately. Dad gets out slower. The kids are running up the hill speaking in English to each other and Spanish to their dad. They always go into the ladies side of the restrooms with their toothbrushes and paste in hand. There is laughter and tapping of the plastic brushes against the sink., they exit the bathroom spitting the foamy residue on the sidewalk to see what "designs" they come up with!
Who is this dad? These kids are happy, obviously they take care of their teeth...... why do they come to the park before school for this? Are they homeless? Are they illegal? Does the mother work nights and dad is just getting them out so she can sleep?
In the hospital I see people who should have had everything in life, yet a tip into the bottle or the drug store is devastating to them. They lose everything, family, home, health.
Seeing clips of peoples lives tells you little, we can never understand what it is like to live that person's life. We can never know what devils chase them, we can never know why they are where they are at that moment we see them. We can only guide our own lives, support our own dreams, fight our own battles.