In the past few days I’ve been struck by the story of the stranger who noticed a man sitting on a bench outside a coffee shop in some distress – vomiting and sweating. As others passed by – perhaps avoiding someone they may have assumed had drunk a little too much – this woman stopped to help.
She’d recognised the signs of someone experiencing a stroke. Her assistance, including calling the emergency services, is said to have saved the man’s life.
We can call her act heroic, an act of kindness, an awareness of those around her, compassion for a fellow human being. Whatever we call this isn’t this care for another, and a willingness to get involved, a fundamental part of our human purpose?
I am fond of Mother Teresa’s words in this respect…’Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.’
In this time of great uncertainty a sense of being rudderless, of drifting untethered, of not being able to grasp what next, may lead us to a loss of purpose…a sense of purposelessness. In such times our awareness of life around us and of engaging in small acts of kindness, of love, can connect us with our humanity, our place in the human family and our sense of oneness with the all.
And it can reconnect us with our purpose, encouraging our small steps towards a bigger contribution to creating a better world.