Yesterday I ended the year by doing something I had been thinking about for a while. Let me back up a bit. Sometimes I get these notions in my head and they don’t go away. One of them was to find a homeless man I have seen for a few years around here and ask him if he needed anything. He always showed up near a gas station I frequent as it is right off the interstate. I would watch him and wonder where he went. He kept his beard long and frequently was seen biking around the city. In the weeks before Christmas, I did not pass him.
A few days before Christmas, I saw another man in front of a group of shops. I rarely go that way, but I was on a mission that day to locate something. I had my girls with me and he was sitting at a metal table…outside. It was pretty cold. He had on layers of clothing and I noticed a bike near him. I wondered if he was waiting for someone, but upon closer inspection, he appeared homeless. Other people passed by without a glance, but I always glance. Not only do I glance, but I wonder what the story is. How did he get to this point? Even if he wasn’t homeless as some people probably thought, he was definitely desperate to sit out in the cold. I got the kids in the car and had a moment of indecision. I wanted to help, but didn’t want to hurt his pride in case I was mistaken. I got in the car and drove away after making eye contact. My daughter looked back because she knew I felt sorry for him and she said she thought perhaps he was pulling out a sign.
Yesterday, I had to go back that way to return something. Ha. Anyway, I looked over to those shops and there he was. It was my chance to do what I was thinking. I was going to buy him some hot coffee and some food if he wanted some. Hmmm. How do I do this? I called my husband. I told him what I was thinking and he asked me if I still had the gift card from Starbucks that I re-load with money. As luck would have it, I did and I had just re-loaded it. There was a Starbucks around the corner from where the man was and he looked like he could use a cup of coffee. Okay, in my life, coffee fixes a lot of things. I thanked my husband for the idea and made a U-turn. I pulled up in the same car mini-van I was driving when I saw him the other day, jumped out and went straight for him. Hello, I have a gift card for you. Please use it if you need some coffee or a meal. He looked at me again and said thank you friend. Friend. I hope he used it.
So maybe I didn’t get everything done last year I set out to do. In fact, maybe I regressed. Who knows. At that point, I felt good. Now I need to start over this year and do one good deed a week…or more. Your mission is to do the same. You don’t have to tell anyone. Just start now. It can be as simple as a compliment to a stranger, holding the door for someone, or buying Starbucks cards and handing them out to the homeless. It feels good.
“Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.” ~Peter Marshall