Day Six

I've been struggling to think of a subject for today's post since the moment I woke up as it seems I have gotten into a cycle of waking up, thinking of a blog post all day, blogging, relaxing, then waking up with the same feeling. Usually the ideas come to me once I begin to type but today I witnessed and took part in something which made me have that 'true smile' which I explained to you in my first post.


Today I witnessed a beautiful and heartwarming 'Random Act of Kindness'. You don't see those often enough any more do you? Everybody is surrounded in their own little cloud of mortgages and fish and chips and facebook and insanely basic everyday things which are then coated in a spread of dust and self pity to form a community of people who don't care at all for the people around them. Especially around the London area, everyone walks so fast and purposefully, not daring to take in their own surroundings, and forgets the people around them.


People forget the homeless, hidden beneath a layer of dirt and sweat and the myth that any money given to them will be invested into alcohol or drugs.  People forget the sick, hidden beneath hospital sheets and pale faces and the loneliness. People forget their own neighbours, not hidden, ignored and unwanted. Lonely. All of them so lonely.


'Random Acts of Kindness' are given by people who find the homeless, pull back the sheet of dirt, sweat and myths and find a person just like themselves. They are given by those who can find the person beneath all of these titles, and are willing to hold out a hand and are not scared to have it taken by the sick, the homeless, the neighbour. Today, I looked on as a woman held out her hand to a man, one of 'the homeless', and he took it and savoured the moment with a smile and a sparkle in his eye that I was almost sure hadn't been there in a very long time.


This man had wandered around where my friend and I were sitting, pleading for someone to give him a pound which he could spend on food. He was 'desperate', he said, 'starving', he said, yet nobody held out that hand. Nobody acknowledged just how lost and scared he was, how fearful he was of facing the world without a penny in his pocket or a person to depend on.


The woman who gave her 'Random Act of Kindness' nodded the instant he asked for a pound, yet, instead of holding out her hand and handing over the small sum of money, she did more than that. She offered her friendship, she offered him a meal at McDonalds and a long discussion to go with it. I watched as she asked him to join her for a meal, and that's when the smile stretched, rusty and unused but still able to appear upon his lips. The sparkle in his eye, the utter joy he felt in that moment, it hit me and it hit me hard.


That man will go to sleep tonight with a full stomach and the knowledge that for a moment in his lonely, repetitive day, somebody cared for him and won his 'true smile'.


Later this evening I was walking home from my local corner shop when a man, 'the neighbour', was frantically scanning the ground for something he had dropped. I walked past him, chatting away to my sister, before stopping and scanning the ground too. He had lost something, and I would help to find it. It turned out it was only one pound, but ironically, that had been what the man, 'the homeless', had asked for earlier. I found it for him, handed it over and received a grateful smile. 


I realise how symbolic a single pound has been in this blog post. The man, hungry and poor, needed someone to give him a pound and received so much more. The man, a neighbour, who had lost his pound, received exactly what he wanted with a helping hand and a smile. 


A value of money or time so small and insignificant to those of us with our heads in our clouds of 'insanely basic everyday things' can really change how society works. If a homeless man needs a pound, lend him a pound and expect nothing in return. If a sick person, or a lonely person, requires a moment of your time to make them smile, dedicate that time to them and again, expect nothing in return. If your neighbour, or a person walking by, needs a helping hand, give them that helping hand and excel at doing something that every human is able to do.


All I am asking is for everybody, no matter how big or small it is, to attempt at giving one 'Random Act of Kindness' after reading my blog. If you don't expect a thing in return you will be surprised by how much you gain out of it. Good evening and good night.


Ayesha x


(P.S again I haven't bothered to correct either spelling or grammar so please ignore any mistakes made. I'm too tired to go back through and edit this now.