A close friend, who chose to remain anonymous, shared this with me yesterday and requested that I post on my blog. It’s short, but quite inspiring and I’d say it’s a call to action for each one of us….

“Something deeply penetrating happened to me this morning. I got to work, and one of the security men at my office came around to help me with an umbrella. For some reason, I asked him “where do you live” and his response was that he worked at another site; so, when he was done at my office, he would set off to work night shift at another location. So, I asked him “Does that mean you don’t have a home?” and he replied “Yes”. I was heartbroken. This young man has crossed my path several times and I didn’t care enough to know anything about him. Sometimes, I had scolded him for the things he didn’t get right but I never paid enough attention to, or sought to understand, the deeper experiences that formed him. Perhaps, that would have given me a window into the unique challenges that influenced his actions.

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As I got into my office, settled at my desk, and thought about the hardship that many people around us go through, a tear dropped, and then another, and another. I prayed desperately for the strength to respond to the needs of others courageously; in the words of Mahatma Ghandi, to “live simply so that others may simply live”.

How often we wind up our windows when beggars approach our cars, or steer towards a different direction when we see someone suffering from drug addiction. On few occasions when we try to help, we throw money at them without looking into their faces. The world needs more love, more understanding, more generosity. The world needs more people to genuinely ask “How are you?”. The world needs more people to look into the faces of the poor and the beggars and remind them with a smile that they are humans. The world needs more light. May each of us be that light.”