Eleanor Rigby.

I love looking at people.

People-watching is different from people-looking.

I find myself people-looking more often than people-watching.

To people-watch is to closely observe.
To people-look is to merely glance, take note, and relate.
I find it to be much less invasive and much more eye-opening.
You see, I find that people-watching has much more to do with others and nearly nothing to do with myself. But people-looking seems to be more about me.
I don't mean to be selfish, but sometimes it's best to worry about one's self before worrying about others.

It's a cycle. We should all be selfish before we are selfless. If we don't take care of ourselves first, then someone else will have to and then everyone is just looking after someone else, so we're all being looked after as well as looking after, and that puts a burden on others, don't you think? If we would have just worried about ourselves first, then others wouldn't have had to worry about us. 
So being selfish is almost selfless.
Kind of.
Right?

Anyway.
When I people-look, I look at faces.
I look at the face that is covering up a broken inside.

Every person is broken.

And that gives me something to reflect on.

All the lonely people. Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people. Where do they all belong?
I don't mean to relate everything to The Beatles, but they are all too inspiring.
All of these lonely, broken people. Growing up, doing the best they can, working hard to graduate high school to get into a university to get a good job to make money to provide for a family that will start the same cycle that they went through and then they die.
Why does it all happen? Why are we all working for the same goal?
We all work hard to get to a place where we will simply have to work harder. And then we die.
Who/what are we doing it for? Why are we doing it at all?

I'm not trying to be pessimistic.
Because life is so beautiful, and there is no way around that astounding beauty.
But it isn't always easy to see that beauty.
We're often blinded by questions and doubt and misunderstanding.
But there is always a silver lining. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

That's what I learn from people-looking:
That hard work means more hard work. And accomplishment means hard work. And forgiveness means hard work. And love means hard work. And broken hearts mean new opportunities to love which means hard work. And marriage means hard work. And kids mean hard work. And the hard work never ends.

But I also learn that failure means success. And losing means winning. And working means earning.
And maybe life means hard work. But life also means accomplishment.

Life means glory.
Life is glorious.




Image.