CARRYING THE LOAD

On the way home from church on Sunday, I saw a woman and her young daughter trudging through the snow as she pulled a small cart of food. By the time I saw them, it was too late to pull over. I drove to the next turn around and then returned to give them a ride. As I drove toward them, I was delighted to see that someone else was already helping them place the cart into the back of their van to drive them home. There are so many good people in the world. I am always uplifted by their kindness.

Many of you have shared with me your own experiences helping others in need. One story that touched my heart this week was from a woman I don’t know personally. She commented on a trending story on homelessness shared by another of my friends. I contacted her via Facebook, and she was kind enough to allow me to post her experience here:

I am from New Zealand and did a six month stint in New York as a paramedic. One of my call outs was a homeless mother and son. Wrong place, wrong time, she had been shot. Would be in hospital for a while. The teen wasn’t allowed to stay at the hospital. That shocked me a little bit. So I put the boy into a taxi and gave him my front door key and paid the cabbie. That boy could’ve ransacked my home. But after a long night of dealing with some eye popping incidences, I got home to find a meal wrapped up on my kitchen counter. Haha. Scrambled eggs on toast with a “Thank You So Much” note. Thirteen-year-old Nathanial and his mother Natalia stayed with me for the duration of my stay. Nat got a job as an emergency response dispatcher and Nathanial is studying to become a mechanical engineer at the Navy. I’m now 28 and I still have that note Nathanial wrote me seven years ago. They’re not the first people I’ve taken in. I enjoy being able to help when others need it. I can’t change the world, but I can make a difference, along with quite a good number of you on this page and others.

I didn’t meet the family that helped the woman and her daughter make it home this Sunday, but I am grateful to have witnessed their goodness in action. So many of you actively—and sometimes literally—carry the loads of others. As in the case of Natalia and Nathanial, your simple generosity can influence lives forever. One by one, heart to heart, maybe we can change the world.

Image by Aleš Kartal from Pixabay