stared upon by angel eyes

I run.

It is something I enjoy doing thrice a week every morning. I would usually run a distance of 10 kilometers. Sometimes I time myself. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I beat my best time. Sometimes, well, I just run = ) I run because the health experts suggest that for 30-somethings, like me, a cardio exercise is a must.

But this morning, my cardio-routine took a turn towards a life moment.

After running, I would usually walk to a street vendor and have my 10-peso bottled water as I cool down and "normalized" my heartbeat. Then after a few minutes, I'll board a jeep to go home.

This particular morning just as I uttered, "Mama, bayad ho," a mother cuddling her less than a year old baby boy boarded the jeep. Nothing quirky about that except, maybe, that they sat across me and the bundle of joy was staring at my sweaty self. He was looking because my hair was up.

This little bundle of joy just stared at me. The big round eyes seemed to get bigger as the moment passed by. At first, he had a questioning look. He looked at my hair then to my eyes then back to my hair again as if asking, "What happened here?" Funny. Because this "guy" was fearless, honest, pure.

As he looked, or should I say stared, I caught myself smiling. It's been awhile since I was stared at and felt amused about it. And as I smile, the little boy smiled back. The toothless-smile was enough to take away the voluntarily-induced weariness away.

I was smiling. The boy was smiling and then the mom said, "Mama, para po."

I was still smiling as they went down and walked away.