Blessed Neighbourhood

I am truly blessed to be in a wonderful neighbourhood of caring and helpful neighbours. Last Saturday, there was an unfortunate break-in in one of our neighbour's house with lots of valuables lost. What is fortunate was that no one was home at that moment. However, it did shake the neighbourhood and the residents committee to look into possible attempts in improving the security around the neighbourhood.

Being a president of the neighbourhood, there was truly nothing I could do except to show concern to my neighbour. I took the initiative to call another neighbour residing opposite the unfortunate neighbour to request if we could view his CCTV recordings in the hope to find any suspicious vehicles which parked outside my unfortunate neighbour's house the night the incident happened. We were blessed by his willingness to assist and hence had managed to bring our unfortunate neighbour a step closer to identifying the thieves who robbed his belongings.

What I witnessed in myself and also in my helpful neighbour today, even my brother whom I had called for assistance to see if he could help to abstract the related recording for backup, was compassion. A sort of compassion that did not see my unfortunate neighbour as a victim, but as someone whom we were willing to put our hearts out to assist. And in my role as a president, I saw the necessary function that I had to take on, to ensure the well being of the residents residing in this neighbourhood.

Just the other day, I was arguing with my teacher about the definition of compassion. I saw compassion then, in the space of being superior to others, i.e. seeing others as victim. But in today's experience, I begin to realise that there was another quality of compassion that did not require me to do so. Although I acknowledged my neighbour's unfortunate experience, it has also brought me to a space where there was a kind of new responsibility to improve the security surroundings of the neighbourhood, so that the loving residents in the community are being taken care of, so as to perform their personal and societal functions even more efficiently. Can you imagine the impact to the society then? The well being of one is of such importance to the stability and well being of the society on the whole!

I am glad to be blessed with such experience, for I learned. Something that I may not have understood from school, or reading, or speaking to someone. It is pure experiential. Now I can fully take up my role as a president not worrying about what others would have to say. During a later discussion after the viewing of the CCTV recordings, my neighbours assured of their support of my future decisions. It was as if a sort of trust was bestowed upon me, something that I had lacked in myself for being unsure if I was really that capable despite already been given that responsibility. They said to me, "Gerry, we have put you there so you could do something about it. As long as you know in your heart that you are doing it for the well being of the neighbourhood, you don't have to care what others say even if there will be some who will complain." That was something that I failed to see. I didn't see it as a responsibility to make decisions for the community for their well being; I saw myself as someone who was just carrying out 'their' instructions onto me. How would I know that I am not capable except for the fear of being responsible for myself and others? And how do I know that I am not capable if I carried out this function with my heart, with love?

I am ready now. And I shall do my best, from my heart. What I give to others, I give to myself.