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What Happens When a Homeless Man Asks You to Buy Him Some Food
Can we open our heart with compassion instead of recoiling into our own safe little world?
I had run into Tractor Supply to get food for my chickens and my cats. I was lingering in the lobby by the front door, looking at amaryllis and daffodil bulbs, when a tall, slightly pungent man leaned over as if to see what I was looking at. When I straightened up, he made eye contact with me. He said, “I’m hungry ma’am. Do you think you could buy me a few snacks?”
I had a fleeting moment when I thought, “Not now. I have to get to a meeting. I don’t want to get involved.” Then I looked into his pale, earnest eyes and said, “Sure.” It was my opportunity to practice generosity and compassion, to give from the abundance which I have been given. Of course, there was always a chance that I was being scammed, but when I looked at his tattered jacket and the holes in his boots, I was willing to take that chance.
We went into the store and he selected his snacks, first carefully and then with abandon. Beef jerky, nuts and candy all went in the pile. He asked me if I was a farmer. I said no, and he said he was raised on a farm. He said he had stood and read some of the farm magazines before I came in. Then he went off on a tangent about inventions…
