“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
Dalai Lama
At the recent CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition, I travelled home with two other members of the blog squad and I was shocked and saddened to see so many homeless people on the streets of Manchester. We came across a young homeless lady called Megan and she told us that she slept in the car park opposite where she was sat, her story brought me to tears and I’ve still to this day, not stopped thinking about her.
We offered to buy Megan a hot drink, food and anything else that she may have needed; but she politely declined our offers, with my husband being a former driver, he used to travel the country and stop for coffee at McDonalds, as a result he picked up the coffee stickers that are on the side and collected many of them over the past 12 months. I had a handful of these so I gave her every last one and told her to make sure she got herself a hot chocolate or coffee whenever she needed it.
I gave Megan a hug before having to leave to catch my train back home and I didn’t want to leave her; I cried most of the way home. She said it was nice to have a conversation with people who actually care and don’t just walk by. Since then, I have spoken to many homeless people on my lunch breaks at work but also those in my local town and they all say how nice it is to be acknowledged.
Words cost nothing, and by taking the time to speak to people can really make a difference to their day.
So today’s challenge is: do something kind for someone in need, it could be to buy a coffee for a homeless person (always ask them first), it could be a colleague who is having a difficult time, it could even be a family member who is facing a problem.
Natalie Ellis HR 