I walked to the shop this morning, it was raining, pouring down at times. And on the way home I came across a woman who was soaked through. I approached her and asked if she was alright. She told me that she needed to go to welfare this morning.
I felt sorry for her. I had an appointment this morning with the local welfare office, and I was unsure how I was going to get there because of the pouring rain. So I could easily sympathize with her.
If I cycle I would get soaked, if I walked I would get soaked. I didn’t have $15 for a taxi to town. What is the point of sitting in a chair in an office soaked through shaking with cold about to get pneumonia. My appointment was before the bus arrived.
I looked at the poor soaked woman and gave her my umbrella to keep so that even if she had to walk to town or to a friend’s house hopefully she wouldn’t be too wet. It was all I could do for her with us both standing in the rain.
It doesn’t matter what the reason is for her being poor and wet. At least she is alive. As long as we are breathing things can get better.
Just imagine how many people who went past her while snug in their cars with apathy looking the other way thinking, “Not my business!”
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I have a friend who offers people a ride to town when it rains if he sees them at the side of the road. He has a very nice Ford XR6 coloured gold. He doesn’t mind his seats getting wet, he just wants to help people. Over the years he has given my children and I a ride to town if he sees us at the side of the road in the rain or standing under a tree to try keep dry.
Years ago when my ex-wife had left I was walking home from town, soaked through, crying my heart out because I believed that I was getting what I deserved and that I was such a loser (like what everyone had always told me that I was).
And my friend saw me walking in the rain drenched and he stopped his car, yelled at me to get in, and took me home, have me a whopping trekking off for allowing myself to get wet. I kept apologizing because I was getting his expensive car wet, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to make sure that I got home safe.
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Society has created apathy, people who are pleased that they don’t care about people who are poorer than them. Instead of helping out, they drive past.
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Obviously there is only so much that I can do in my current position in life etc, but as Mother Teresa said, “We can start by helping someone.”
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As for me I rang Emma at the welfare office after I got home and she let me have another appointment at a later date because it was too wet to go into town.
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So I was very grateful and blessed.
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God is looking after us all.
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All the best from
James M Sandbrook.
Tuesday, 1 March 2016, 10:23:56 AM.