That Special Grace

After only a few days in Vietnam I began noticing certain people on the streets of Hanoi. People who carried themselves with dignity and grace.

Often they would be reclining on the sidewalk watching the world go by. There was a sense of acceptance in their eyes, but not defeat. They held their bodies like dancers whether sitting on a plastic stool or laying on the seat of a motor scooter as others worked around them.

I saw it in this old man who stepped out of a building into a chaotic alley marketplace.

Notice his hands gently clasped behind his back. He sees the chaos in front of him yet he is unaffected as he marches toward it. He has seen it all and he is unimpressed.

There is a noticeable physicality in the scenes of human grace that play out on the streets of Hanoi.

There is the old saying, “life is what happens as we make plans.” That’s the understanding I think I saw in the relaxed gestures of people who spend their days trying to make each day work in the streets of Vietnam’s capital.