heroes awakened

"Our planet is filled with heroes, young and old, rich and poor, man, woman of different colors, shapes and sizes. We are one great tapestry. Each person has a hidden hero within, you just have to look inside you and search it in your heart, and be the hero to the next one in need." - Efren Penaflorida

I was reading the stories of the Top Ten CNN Heroes for 2009 and I realized that a lot of them had something in common-- these heroes started out as victims: a drug addicted war veteran, a cancer patient, a teenager that was raped, impregnated and infected with AIDS, a kid from the slums, an amputee. That hero within was shook awake, forced to stand up and fight the battle. A constant battle which I don't think they ever expect to end. That's one of the things I both admire and envy about them, their inexhaustible supply of strength and motivation.

Aside from Efren, one of my favorite among the ten nominees is Jorge Munoz. He is a Colombian immigrant who runs a mobile soup kitchen in Queens, New York. As a bus driver, he earns $700 a week and spends about $400 to $450 to fund the endeavor. It takes up most of his time and their apartment space. Where does he get his motivation?? I refuse to believe that he never had any doubts about it. I'm sure there are times when he felt tired and crazy and just wanted to stop, save some money and start his own family. But why still do it? What makes him go on? It's amazing.

Even more amazing are the ones that heed the call even though they didn't have to. Budi Soehardi was a pilot living in Singapore with his family and yet they reached out and helped the orphans in West Timor. Brad Blauser brought wheelchairs to Iraqi kids and Doc Hendley turned wine into water for developing countries. These people saw the need, went ahead and got to work. It's that simple.

We look at heroes and immediately we think of grandeur. Superman and saving the world. Grand transformations and dramatic revelations. We look at them and think, I can never do that. But maybe that's because we put them in a really high pedestal. Helping is not easy but it's not impossible. Heroes are not that hard to find. Just decide, get to work and be one.