Wednesday, May 8, 2013

the little things: a sammich and a sweet

in january we lost one of the nicest, kindest people i know.
everyone who knew him would say the same thing.

...and today would have been his 29th birthday.
from the big heart of his mom, at least 29 random acts of kindness we carried out in his honor.

each day i walk through the streets of new york city, whether it's 5:45am and i'm racing to catch my train to boston, or it's friday night rush hour, i see homeless people everywhere.  sleeping at a storefront,   walking through the warm halls of penn station, i even saw one man this past monday who had a stroller stacked to the brim of belongings NOT belonging to a baby.  i wanted to be mad at him, thinking he probably stole it.  but i couldn't stay mad, because that's all he had.  moms who have it all push full strollers around the city with big smiles on their faces, then bring them back home where they may have even more strollers.  but for this man, the stroller WAS his home.

tonight i decided to go to whole foods, pick up a nutritious sammich (and a justin's peanut butter cup because everyone loves something sweet), walked out of the store destined to give the brown bag of goodies to the first homeless person i saw.  this is the wealthiest neighborhood in boston.  although i kept my eyes peeled, i expected to walk at least a mile to the park (the only place i have EVER seen anyone who looked homeless in boston).

little did i know, though i only had to walk about 3 blocks before finding an elderly aftrican american woman asking for change in a cup.

she totally caught me off guard, but before i had a chance to think "how about a sammich instead" burst out of my mouth.

a genuine "thank you" and her open arms for a hug put a big 'old lump in my throat.
a hug and a "have a good night" later and my job was complete.

maybe you think that buying a sammich for a homeless person is cliche (walking through the store trying to find a good sammich felt like it too, but i couldn't think of something more creative). but lemme tell you, i didn't feel an ounce of cliche after doing it...

i can't think of a better way to remember tyson, by doing something that makes me feel good inside :)


see you on the flip side, tyson! 
and happy birthday.

cheers.

3 comments:

Lauren said...

What an amazing way to honor him!

osmr said...

Nice tribute, Jenn!

Anonymous said...

This is really touching. I love that song :)