There was once a time

I’ll never know her name or her story, her life’s tale, beyond this mental snapshot.  I’ll never know her, yet I’ll never forget her image: that flimsy cardboard sign, faded from the sun, its scribbled words, smeared from the rain, and her wrinkled hands that held that sign for the world to see, beaten and broken.  The sign was a plea for help, a humiliating last resort, written from a place where pride breaks and insides unceasingly grumble for nourishment, persistently reminding of failure and pain.  “HUNGRY,” the sign cried out to me.

            I was on vacation at the time, a cross-country road trip with my grandparents, and the last thing that I expected was encountering this homeless women, bringing me to see beyond myself, to look into the weary eyes of a total stranger as if I knew them personally.  But those eyes brought a profound change to my personality, my attitude.  My life up until then had been relatively self-serving, not even taking the care to notice others’ needs.  The homeless, famished woman brought me to change my focus from myself to those around me.  This relatively simple lesson has captured a new notion that has been more meaningful than thought possible. 

            I have learned from this simple scene a multitude of lessons that changed my point of view: I endeavor to impact the people in my life, helping them to become more aware outside of themselves. I strive make sure everyone is included.  I have learned to not take what I’ve been given for granted. 

            Everywhere I go, I remember the mental image of the woman.  But I also cherish another picture, a photograph of some friends and me that testifies to this new reasoning.  As part of a life-changing mission trip, we are standing in a small, pink room, covered in fresh paint, next to a small, beaming girl, whose room was finally fully restored.  We are standing in a city devastated by two major hurricanes, its people knocked down, and we are helping them stand.  It is these interactions and experiences that have truly captured and shaped my actions, through awareness of the suffering.