Souls Come Into Your Life for a Reason (and that reason is up to you...)

I just gave some cash to a homeless man. I do this any chance I get, keeping cash on me for just this reason-- and even sometimes having care packages of food and socks/gloves/toothpaste.

I don't say this for any props. I say this because the man I gave to today said, "Bless you." He told me he'd been out there (in below-freezing temps) for the past few hours, and I was the first one to even acknowledge him, much less give him any aid.

These people are humans. They're souls. They deserve to be seen/heard like anyone else. Some folks discourage giving, fearing the money will be used for drugs or cigarettes or something else they've learned to judge. Some even say the homeless have brought this on themselves with the decisions they've made in their lives. And even if that's true, perhaps those decisions were made just to give you the opportunity to help. To refine the practice of why we're truly here--to connect, to lend a hand to someone; to recognize all the hands we've been offered over the course of our lives in humble gratitude and compassion for our Collective Self.