This year started on a good note for me and even though somewhere at the ending of the month of January, something happened to me that shook me, I’d say I wasn’t ready for it even though my spirit saw it and warned me before time but sometimes we are not always ready to embrace what our spirit shows until it hits us.
Well, the hit had quite an impact that sent me locked up for days and weeks crying and almost being depressed. I sleep in late and wake up late. For over five weeks, I was just trying to get by the days. I binged on movies here and there, won’t blog or even go out. Well, all that has changed cos two days ago, I decided to stand up from my rest and live.
I hadn’t prayed in weeks. Well, I talk to God here and there and most times my heart wants to talk but there’s this tiredness in my body that my mouth is too heavy to move. I mutter my prayers which was always asking God for help and to bring me out of that state. Well, he did. He hears prayers even in our weakest moments.
So I decided to take a prayer walk two days ago. I woke up by 5am. And put on my clothes. I had done this walk sometime ago but this time around I took a different axis. Instead of walking right, I took left towards the market axis. There’s a market close by where I live.
And then I was met with the sight I wasn’t ready for. First it was two people sleeping on a bench beside two cars. They were all covered up with clothes probably to shield themselves from plenty mosquito bites and also cold cos they were sleeping in the open. I don’t know whether they were male or female.
Getting past them, I saw about three other men sleeping on the entrance of a supermarket close by too. They were lying down on the cold tiles asleep. I was still trying to process this when along the road as I took a bend to the left again, I now saw a group of men. They were over ten and counting huddled together under a shed, sleeping together. Some were already awake sitting up while some were still asleep. It was only past five in the morning.
At this point I lifted up my voice and started thanking God that I had a good roof over my head. I was taken aback on the kind of ordeal these homeless people would be facing just to survive life and just then my mind drifted to the story my brother told me when he came to Lagos newly.
He was staying with my cousin and his wife who mistreated him so badly and threw him out of the house. He said he had to sleep in someone’s shop for months. The person was kind enough to let him and mosquitoes dealt with him. And it was then I just realized that the world could use a little more kindness…
A little kindness when we are up there can save one more homeless person. A little kindness can cloth one more naked person. A little kindness can save one more depressed person. A little kindness can give someone hope to live and strive. The world can use more kindness and care to make it a happier place to live.