Today I
went to visit some neighbors of mine, who also happen to be like an extra set
of grandparents to me. They are an elderly couple who live just down the street
and have no children of their own… thus, when I go to visit them, they always
ask about the rest of my family (my parents, brothers, sisters), and sometimes
I’ll take one or two of my siblings to go say hi too. I love them like family,
but there is just a little problem, at least, that’s what most people would
say…
They speak
Spanish and not that much English! See, they are originally from Cuba but moved
here to Florida a long time ago. And considering that I don’t speak Spanish
fluently, most people would think that this would create a big problem. But the
cool thing is: we don’t look at it as a problem at all.
Because of
their age, you could say they are a little technically challenged, and that is
how I really started developing a relationship with them. They pay for one of
the biggest packages on dish TV, and of course, it has all of the Spanish
channels too. Whenever they have trouble with it and don’t know how to fix it
on their own, which is fairly often, they always call me. I walk down the
street and see if I can fix it, and I usually find it can be fixed with one button.
But of course, they don’t know that; even though I’ve tried explaining it to
them a dozen times.
But they
always appreciate me coming, and I never feel like I visit them as often as I
would like. Today when I went to see them, they were watching CNN en Espanol. I
didn’t mind that it was in Spanish. I just sat there and watched with them
anyway.
I don’t really
know how they feel about it, I can’t exactly ask them anyway; but I’ve found
that just because there is a physical language barrier between people, doesn’t
mean that there has to be a barrier in all areas of the relationship.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great thing to be bilingual. But
in my opinion, it’s an even greater thing to be able to show love to someone
without words.
Everyday, I get to see more and more how amazing it is to walk in love. Love doesn’t see any barriers. It’s not like a magnet, with a
positive and negative side. It’s like a glue stick. It will bring people
together no matter what they do or don’t have in common. So I’m sure that one day, I’ll learn
Spanish, but until then, love is doing a pretty good job filling in for
me:)
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