My morning routine usually includes a trip to the gym at 8:15 am. Over the past few months I've been driving by a woman pushing a shopping cart loaded with scruffy overnight bags, garbage bags and a few unidentifiable items. She roams aimlessly up and down this small suburban street by day and must take cover somewhere by night.
Every time I see her, my heart leaps out to her but I can't bear to look into the hollow sadness I find on her face. I wonder; who is this mysterious woman, where did she came from? Why is she all alone in this world with no one and nothing to belong to?
Today I stopped my car beside her and parked. That really startled her. I approached with some money and handed it to her. She took it, saying nothing as her dead eyes wearily looked into mine as if to say thank you. Looking down she proceeded to move forward toward nowhere and nothing.
Volunteerism, charity and philanthropy always strokes my heart and inflates my ego just enough to feel really good about what I've done. I didn't get that today. This woman's life is a million miles away from mine and yet we take the same road every morning. What freak of life put us in each others' path every morning? How can I continue on with my good fortune haunted by the dark tunnel of emptiness that belongs to her? She has become a symbol of lost hope, lack of joy and destitution; devoid of even one thing that humans need to live. Food, water and breath are not enough. Without human touch, a kind word, a hot shower or simple compassion how will she continue to survive her aimless walks to nowhere???
Shari Reinhart is a creative and commercial freelance writer based in