non-monetary treasures

Strong family ties have domestically fastened me home. Too attached to them, nothing in my plans has motivated me to work overseas. Not even once. Not even when I was in Singapore.

Keenly then I listened to that woman’s gladness while breaking the bountiful news that her salary was raised to SGD 430, equivalent of which is approximately PHP 14,000. She’s a domestic helper ─ a servant of other’s family, an aide who willed to mind washing dirty clothes of strangers, a cook for children not her own. It bruised my thought that she was there struggling for a few dollars to shore up a decent living for her real family, her real home, her real loved ones.

In my heart I contemplated with equal joy for being blessed with a career stably enough that working far-off is nonessential at all. What I get instead are non-monetary treasures of patience, stronger gusto, contentment, and NOT dollars to dig.

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