Guiding Thought

We now invite, welcome, and receive the effects of Divine Love, and we are truly grateful.

We experience Divine Mind as we experience these effects, and allow Divine Presence to confirm itself in our lives, activities, and affairs.

Sharing

I travel occasionally for my job, enough to be comfortable with it, not enough to find it inconvenient. I usually try to relax and “enjoy the ride” so to say, but I do get some travel anxiety, simply because there is nothing routine about travel. I’m in Chicago today, enjoying Hyde Park and folks at the University here.

I find travel to be a great exercise in connecting with random people, in discovering ways to touch and be touched by humanity. That’s my exercise, anyway…I know there are a lot of people who travel in a bubble, hassled, harried, running around. I do my best to stay very solidly in the moment, so that I can enjoy the ride.

In a train station yesterday, I witnessed an act of humanity that moved me to tears. It was an act of true kindness and selflessness.

It was before 7 am; in the train train station there were about half a dozen homeless people camped out on the benches. There were about the same number of passengers waiting for the next train to New York, and there was a guy cleaning the station, emptying trash containers, etc.

The janitor walked to one of the older, obviously drunk, homeless guys and said, “Man…go change your pants”, as he hands the guy a pair of pants. At first I thought it was kind of harsh, but as the scene unfolded, it was beautiful to witness. The homeless guy raises his head as though disturbed from his drunken stupor looks at the janitor guy and flimsily pushes the pants away.  The janitor points to the guys pants–which were visibly filthy, I was sitting maybe 20 feet away, and I could see how filthy they were, and I can imagine they probably smelled too–and he says “you pants are filthy, man, go change.” Again the pants get pushed away. Next, the janitor puts his hand on the guys shoulder and leans in, now talking too softly for me to hear. From the janitors body language, he’s repeating about how dirty the pants are, and the guy just needs to take these clean pants and go change; from the homeless guys body language, the janitor was, in his way, whispering words of understanding and compassion. The homeless guy softened, and took the pants. It was a beautiful act of humanity and kindness which I felt so privileged to witness.

Such a small thing. A pair of pants.

It occurred to me: It was not like the janitor made a lot of money or had anything of “value” to give, but he gave what he could and the results were amazing. He saw a need; he saw a person in need and he did what he could.

Then it occurred to me that if money or “something of value” were introduced into that dynamic it would become corrupted. For example, if I wanted to help the janitor “do this good work”, and I raised money, or got pants donations so he could give them away to homeless people at the train station, somehow that would destroy the purity of the simple act of seeing another in need and giving in the moment, from the heart.

I was inspired; to me, witnessing this act of humanity was witnessing Divine Love in action, experiencing Divine Mind as we experience these effects, and allowing Divine Presence to confirm itself in our lives, activities, and affairs.

I’ve done what I can on this trip to be very attentive to everyone I interact with, to do so with kindness and care, paying attention to their humanity, and giving whatever small thing I can, even if it’s “just” a smile or kind word.