Stories of Kindness from Around the World

The Homeless Woman Who Mattered To Me


--by healingtree, posted Dec 21, 2016
In November I joined a wonderful initiative  called the You Matter Marathon, sending for and passing out a YOU MATTER card to someone every day for the month, or leaving it somewhere to be found, like a favorite library book.

One person I gave it to was left by poor circumstances begging. I stopped and gave some money, and one of these cards. She took it, looked at it, then at me, and asked what it was for. I explained what it meant to me "to matter in this world," in just a sentence or two. Basically that her human life was precious and that I thought she was an important part of our community, all of us being as important as each other...that at the level of the heart she counted very much. She kind of looked at me blankly. I figured I hadn't explained it very well and let it go.

Some time passed. Last week I saw her and she wanted to hug me.She said she had counted her money at the end of the day and seen the card and kind of shrugged her shoulders, what's this? Nothing, she thought. Then she showed it to people. She came to realize what it meant. And now she knew and was very grateful.
It was a nice moment.
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Readers Comments

mindyjourney wrote: Love when those kindnesses sort of turn up, with a deeper connect and understanding! <3. thank you for doing :))
mnc_91 wrote: Very nice one 😊
leoladyc728 wrote: thank you for gifting wisdom to this woman
Mish wrote: These "you matter"cards are so perfect, esp. to gift w/donations to homeless folks. I will google for these; do many homeless here in NYC. I usually gift w/the money in a peace dove, so clipping one of these cards to the dove would just be perfect.
Mish wrote: Thank you and bless ❤️
1sher wrote: Thank you for sharing this- my son also enjoyed the story
kjoyw wrote: Best gift is sharing your time and talents!

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