To The Least Of These

so i sent an email out back on november 1st of last year (pre blog days) to practically everyone on my email list. what follows is the content of that email:

"Okay, real quick, just wanted to share with you something I saw this morning on the way to work that literally brought a tear to my eye.

I was stopped at the traffic light on Blanco. There was an old, short, wrinkled, hunched over homeless man walking very slowly (and most likely quite painfully) with a cane and an tattered camoflouge coat on. Then a SUV pulls into the parking lot next to him. Out of the SUV comes a 40-something man wearing a suit; obvisouly on his way to work; and he has a bag in his hand. He walks over to the homeless man and hands him his bag, it was his lunch! I could see him tell the homeless man something (I could only assume "I want you to have this", or "This is for you", something along those lines), pats the old man on the shoulder, then walks back to his car, gets in and drives away.

All of this happened in less than a minute! It took me longer than that to fully process what I had just witnessed! What a wonderful sign of love and hope. This man gave of himself so that others may have. He didn't do it for any glory...Odds are I might be the only person that even witnessed it. Just thought I'd share a good story in a world full of so many bad ones!"

well, i told you that story to tell you this one...the giving hasn't stopped! granted, the homeless man turned out to actually be an old woman (when i first saw her it was cold and she was bundled up. i guessed wrong...sue me), but that's not the point. the point is, everyday i pass by this homeless woman, and everyday she has food and drinks with her that people have given to her. mcdonalds, bill millers, taco cabana, valero coffee, heck, even starbucks!

one day i passed by and saw that she had nothing, so i turned around and gave her my granola i was planning to eat at work. no other time have i seen her empty handed, and i see her everyday! what an amazing example of giving. i imagine that even this woman feels blessed.

but what i saw yesterday (valentine's day) had to be the icing on the cake. i was stopped at the red light (its amazing how poorly timed those lights are on blanco road), and there was a middle aged man who had a very striking resemblance to multi-billionare richard branson stepping out of a brand new red chevrolet corvette (still had the paper liscense plate new). he walked over to this homeless woman, handed her one of those large, red, heart shaped boxes full of chocolate, gave her a hug and smile, then walked back to his very expensive sportscar and drove off!

again, i'm amazed! somehow i'm always the one who feels blessed to have witnessed such an act of selflessness. and it always leaves me questioning myself, "what have i done for someone else? how selfless am i?" i pose those same questions to you today...