It all started during a day out in London with a few friends..
We were walking towards the underground, ready to get back home after a long day out in London.
Busy wasn't the word. It's was absolutely chaotic, people running and walking at different speeds, coming from all directions and pushing ; you could barely fit between them!
All this movement started confusing me until I stopped and focused on something, or someone in a corner...
It was a man, sat on some clothes piled up, as if he was trying to create a mountain and separate his body from the cold and dirty floor.
His face was emotionless, empty, hopeless. You could see his wrinkles , sign of time passing, life changing who he was and his hands seemed hands of a man who has worked all his life, tired and swollen.
I looked at him and felt the need to stop and put myself in his shoes, see the world with his eyes.
Three more people around him, in the same situation, and a hundred people walking past them.
They had different faces and their eyes told different stories, but they all had something in common: the need of help, and the easiest way of getting it in that situation was placing a cup in front of them, waiting for those coins that we often underestimate but which often enable them to eat and survive another day.
They are not disturbing or shouting for help. They just wait to be looked at, to be considered because where is all the sympathy and the love that we talk about? Where do we look ?
The truth is that we don't see, we can't see what really matters.
We worry a lot about how we look like,we worry if we cant find our favourite brand of crisps or if we have to wait for a train to get home.
Do you even realise how futile our problems are, compared to homeless people. They don't care if they are wearing the less fashionable coat, or if they can't get enough food to help their bodies function properly. They don't have a house, or any warm place, especially winter.
They are happy with what they have and would really appreciate help, even if it means £1, a hug.
They often have none and they would be deeply grateful if you would talk to them, even just to ask how their day is.
At the end, it is all about receiving affection and knowing that there is someone who cares about you and knowing you are not alone.
I feel it is my duty to remind you that they are not animals, they are people found in a bad situation. They don't need comments about why they are doing what they are doing, they don't need to be ignored.
Wouldn't you appreciate people helping you if you were in the same situation?
Observing ,as well as caring about others, is one of those skills we keep losing as the world progresses and society slowly and sadly changes us into a selfish creatures.
Please reflect about these people and if you can give them a little help.
