I am grateful my friend Millie enlisted me to help her take a persons bags who has been homeless for awhile to the bus stop.
This person needed to catch the bus and was having a hard time getting around and she offered to help with the load. We all gathered his things and started our journey.
I could see he was having a tough time with the cart, he was limping, he didn't have a belt to hold up his pants and was carrying way too much, so I offered to pull that. Once I started with his cart I could understand why he was having such a tough time because it was heavy! As we trucked down the sidewalk 2 women and this man who is homeless all carrying his belongings, needless to say, we got some strange looks. The trick with carrying his cart to ease the load was to keep it low to the ground so Millie then offered to carry that since she was shorter......she is great - offering to help, bringing to it her effervescent laugh and smile and making the whole experience fun and not awkward for any of us, especially him:)
What really took me aback in this process was that this man may not have had a lot of things and certainly has disadvantages beyond normal, but what he did have is pride, determination, resourcefulness and a big smile.
We got to our destination and dropped him off and wished him safe travels......he turned to us and thanked us and hoped we had a nice day.
As we walked back together we couldn't help but discuss the plight of being homeless and how hard it must be. She discussed how we get caught up in our own stuff and forget there is a world of problems out there with real people connected to them and that she wanted to do more to help.
I am grateful I have a home, a friend like Mil and the opportunity and desire to help where I can and in the future to remember to look for more:):):)
How do you help? I would love to hear your story
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