Yesterday sitting in a drive through waiting for our drinks my bitties (what I call my twin pre-schoolers) commented that the girl in the window was very pretty. So I made a point of looking right at her, to see what they thought was beautiful. The young girl was pretty. She looked heavy, and I wondered about that, because she looked a strange kind of heavy, and she was really young looking. Then I realized she was pregnant. How tiring that job must be standing for so long, serving with that extra weight and the growth processes going on inside her. She handed me my drinks, and I passed on the compliment from the bitties. She got the biggest smile. I hope it made her day. I know the two compliments I received today made mine.
I saw this quote the other day and it really says it all here it is
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."
Dalai Lama
I was reminded today of my sweet Gramsy. She would run into homeless people in LA asking for change, and she would buy them shoes, or lunch, or shoes and lunch. She didn't have much, but she could not turn a hungry person away, ever. She said they could always use shoes.
One day I was shopping by the San Juan Capistrano Mission, actually I was done shopping and in a hurry to get home. An elderly gentleman approached me and said
"Excuse me ma'am..."I was in a parking lot, alone, but it was daytime. I stopped, looked him in the eye and said "Yes?"
His next words startled me... "Aren't you afraid?" He asked me. This caused me to wonder for a moment if I should be, and I answered "no, should I be?" Waiting to see what would happen next. This elderly gentleman, who happened to be a person of color and in need of some cash, then said "Are you from here?" Now this question was slightly unnerving because I could not see where this conversation was going? "Yes." I said. "Why?" "You are the first person in this city who has even stopped to look at me today when I spoke to them. Everyone else was afraid." I was stunned. Since the economy took its turn there have been more and more homeless people asking for help here and there. This particular shopping center I was walking through was full of economically well off people. People with much more resources than I, and can you imagine? No really, can you imagine?? In this day and age being treated so poorly. I was shocked and saddened.
Some people might think me naiive, or just plain gullible for helping someone who may or may not need help. Who may or may not take that money and do drugs, or drink. But you know what? Maybe that one kindness that person recieves that day will be the catalyst they need for change. Maybe it will be that one ray of hope in a dark and scary world. Maybe they are not what they seem at all, who knows? I surely don't. The way I see it if they are asking me, it is my choice to be loving, or unloving. I choose loving.
That reminds me of another quote I love. In the movie (A great movie) called The Kingdom of Heaven
The King speaking to him about the uncertainties of life says this " When I was sixteen, I won a great victory. I felt in that moment I would live to be a hundred. Now I know I shall not see thirty. None of us know our end, really, or what hand will guide us there. A king may move a man, a father may claim a son, but that man can also move himself, and only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that howsoever you are played or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone, even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus," or that virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice. Remember that."
Yes, remember that...
1 comment:
wow. so true. i looked away from a man the other day, i thought i should do something, but i didn't. i'm glad you didn't look away. it's hard, sometimes, loving. but i'm glad you are doing what you can.
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