A day in Pitt Street

Two years ago, when I thought of Sydney, seeing homeless people was never there in my mind. I did not expect to see people that are sleeping at random places and are sitting at corners in the city, of where the Opera House is situated, to ask for change, coins, so that they can survive a day.

It was on 24th of December 2015 when this incident happened. That day, I was feeling a little nauseous after staying at home for the whole week so I decided to talk a walk. I kept walking along the George Street till I reached Queen Victoria Building (QVB) and I chose to go to Kinokuniya at the Galleries, beside QVB. But somehow, I didn’t even enter the shop after seeing the long queue, immediately took the escalator and make my move to somewhere else.

Next thing I know, I was standing somewhere along Pitt St. There were so many people that day, it was Christmas eve, so I presumed people are buying last minute gifts. Right between MYER entrance and ZARA entrance, there were two kids performing, they sang some Christmas carols. People were entertained with the kids as they circled around them and show support when they sang.

On another part along Pitt St, there was a guy, selling his paintings. He arranged his paintings on the floor and he sat there, making another one. He looked pretty immersed with his job and does not seem to bother about what is going on around him. Interesting how he had the inspiration and idea flowing, seems like it never dies.

I was thinking about inspiration and something along this line when my eyes caught a girl, young Chinese girl, most probably in her twenties, maybe we share the same age. The girl was holding a plastic bag, full with sandwiches and she was approaching a homeless woman. The woman was sitting at one corner between the shops. She asked the woman,

"Would you mind for a sandwich?"

To which the woman replied,

"I don’t eat cheese."

"Oh wait, let me check if there is anything without cheese in here."

The young girl quickly go through her bag and found one sandwich and gave it to her,

"Is this fine with you?"

The old woman looked at the sandwich and she was satisfied with it and said,

"Yeah this is fine, thank you."

"Okay, Merry Christmas"

And the young girl walked away, I presumed looking for another homeless to feed with the sandwiches. I took another look at the old woman, she looked happy. I can see that there were already so many plastic bags around her, most probably it was foods people gave her, but still at that moment, I might have been mistaken, but I think I saw her raising her hands and said,

"Thank God."

I saw another guy who was observing the incident like I did and when our eyes met, we exchanged smile and I left.

Of the things I was reminded on this day, there are two things I want to highlight here:

Whoever you are, your religion, your status, your gender, your age; never ever forget to spread kindness. Serve the people the around you that are in need. Remember that there so many ways you can help the community to be better, there are so many means to help the poor, the helpless. Bear in mind that small good deeds, made out of sincerity would always be able to spread love among people.

Never forget to thank God for the things you have in life, even small little things. Remember that help is always from God, so be grateful to Him.

As mentioned in a verse in the Quran,

With that, I end my story.

p/s: I wrote four drafts today of which most of them after I finished writing, I concluded that I don't want to put them in my blog- mostly because of how it is written. I'll come back to my draft and write it more properly. Until then, have a lovely weekend :)