Blog #598: Tears, Fears and Turning Around

I saw her sitting alone on a park bench.
She was crying.

I kept walking past her.

______

We live in a different world today.

It’s not as easy and automatic to jump in and offer help as it once was. My own memory is scarred with a couple of times I offered to help people on the street…and then things went bonkers on me.

A couple of years ago…

I asked a troubled-looking guy I saw on my walk if he was okay. He picked up a golf club I hadn’t seen. Using it as a weapon, he wildly started swinging it at me.

I jogged away.

A few months ago…

I got extra nervous seeing a seemingly-unconscious woman lying on a bench with drug paraphernalia next to her. I thought she was…well…”no longer with us.” I had to DO something. I quietly asked over and over: “Miss…are you okay?” She had zero movement until suddenly she crazily jumped to her feet and started screaming bizarrely mean things at me.

I jogged away.

______

So THIS time…

When I saw a woman sitting alone on a bench crying…

my first reaction was to keep walking.

And I did.

For ten yards.

But my brain and feet couldn’t keep going forward.

I HAD to turn around.

“Are you okay?” I asked from a distance.

Initially, she stared in my direction and said nothing. I think she was eyeballing ME to see if I was safe to talk to…TOO. I passed HER test, and she answered.

“No. I’m not,” she said.

“Would you like to tell me what’s wrong,” I asked.

She continued trustingly: “My boyfriend wants nothing to do with me. It’s because I told him I’m pregnant.”

I didn’t see THAT coming.

My own internal drama thoughts shifted gear. The personal challenges I’d been contemplating before talking to her turned into ocean minnows.

I gave her my full attention.

______

We talked for 30 minutes.

She talked 90%.

I talked 10%.

When the time came for her to leave, she said:

“Thank you. I felt alone and said a prayer for help….and then you were here.”

I didn’t tell her I’d almost kept walking past her. Maybe my brain had been nudged by something bigger than me to turn around. Maybe HER prayers.

But I’m glad I did.

I got to be a friend to a stranger who needed a friend.

______

In today’s often uncomfortable world…

It’s easy and safe to walk through life detached. The news, our experiences, other people’s stories…they point for us to keep walking and not get involved.

But when we don’t turn around or raise our hand and ask…

Are we wasting our chance to be HERE?

The world may be easier when we pretend not to see.

But the world doesn’t get better when we don’t.

______

Recently, I took a chance.

I sat with a stranger I didn’t know.

She sat with a stranger she didn’t know.

And in that single moment, two strangers became friends.

But truthfully…

Don’t all friends start as strangers?

______

Yes…

The world is scary-different at times, and I’ll continue to walk through it with a guarded eye. There will always be an uncountable number of people running scams and looking to take advantage of us. But no matter how dim the world grows, I hope I’ll always feel that internal nudge to turn around and do the right thing.

May you and I not be afraid to say “hi.”

Maybe we’ll make a new friend.

Maybe we’ll make a difference.

But most assuredly…

We’ll make the world a tiny bit kinder.

And I think it needs a lot more of that.

S.