As I get older, I find that things that happen to me or around me have the power to make me “well up” and feel quite tearful.
I’m sure I’m not alone in this and we can all be touched by a stunning sunset
Sunset over Boscombe Pier
or a sleeping child
or even seeing two people together who are obviously good friends.
A couple enjoying time under the pier at Boscombe
And who can fail to be touched by the plight of the survivors and those helping in the recent Nepal earthquake. Now that television can “beam” pictures into our homes and we can see for ourselves on the internet and with up-to-the-minute news bulletins the devastation caused, we can almost feel we are there. Almost – but not quite!
We can be touched by the sight of the survivors, but we can’t feel the dust from the destroyed buildings in our mouths or see and smell the stench of the dead bodies lying in the streets, or hear the wailing of those who have lost loved ones, seen their homes devastated and lost everything. We can try to feel their pain, but unless we have walked in their shoes, we cannot possibly know just how they feel.
Living in the UK and never having experienced an earthquake, I can only imagine what it must be like – and so all I can do is pray and give – and trust that the prayers will make a difference and that the money will help towards mending broken lives. But in all honesty, I don’t know how that country will manage to survive, but I am sure it will. The human spirit is very resilient and hopefully, the help needed will be there at the right time.
My husband and I were very moved when we heard that the wife of a famous footballer, Rio Ferdinand, had died as a result of breast cancer – NO – the sentence I have just written is completely wrong and I am ashamed that along with the media, I have assumed that someone’s status makes a difference. It doesn’t!
She wasn’t just “the wife of a famous footballer” – she had a name and her name was Rebecca Ellison. The fact that her husband is a famous footballer should not make a scrap of difference. Cancer killing anyone should be a cause for concern – and yes, the fact that she was only 34 years old and leaves 3 young children is dreadful – but surely we should be sorry that anyone that young, with their life in front of them, loses it to a dreadful disease.
“No man is an island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main.
…….any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind,
and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls;
it tolls for thee.”
John Donne : No Man is An Island – Meditation XVII
And then just a few days ago, we heard on the news of a 29 year old Rugby League player, Danny Jones, in the prime of his life, who died after suffering a cardiac arrest, leaving a young wife and 5 month old twins.
So many sad things happening and I ask myself what am I doing to alleviate the suffering that I hear about? Yes, I can and do pray and we do give to several charities so that aid can be given or sent, but sometimes, it’s not enough and we need to actually DO something.
Last weekend, I was down at Boscombe taking photographs – which is something I enjoy doing, as many of you will know.
Under the pier at Boscombe
I had been on the beach, under the pier and on the pier and probably took about 100 photographs, when I came across this sleeping bag on a seat underneath the pier shelter. There was no movement, and I noticed a young man sitting further along on the seat, having a quick cigarette. We got talking and I asked him if he knew if there was anyone under the sleeping bag. He said he thought there was, as he had seen him earlier in the morning and that he was a very old man, who had said he had nowhere to go. By this time it was mid afternoon, so the person inside the bag was obviously sleeping.
Is there someone in there?
It was a very cold day – and although the sun was shining, the wind was raw, but the seat was in quite a sheltered position so at least I thought the man inside would be warm.
The young man told me his name was Reef – so named because his father owns the Reefside Cafe, just along from where he was sitting. We chatted for sometime and he said he had often seen the man who could hardly walk (which was obviously why he had a walking aid) but that he often came and slept on the seat.
A walking aid and a plastic bag
I took a photograph and then went back to clean and comfortable apartment, and had some lunch and a drink. I had decided that my daily blip would be a sea or beach photograph, showing all the lovely things about Boscombe and had started writing up my journal, but I just couldn’t get this man’s plight out of my mind.
We didn’t have that much food in the apartment, as we were clearing everything out, but I had some chocolate cake that a friend had sent to us from Switzerland, an apple, a Lion bar and a drink so I put them into a bag and told my husband I was going back to see if I could find the man on the pier.
When I got back to the seat, there he was, sitting on the edge of the seat, with his blanket wrapped around his legs and the hood of his anorak covering his face, and pulled up against the cold wind. I was so pleased that he was still there. I sat down next to him and explained that we didn’t have much food in our apartment, as we were only there for a couple of days, but that I had found what I could and made him a little picnic. He smiled and thanked me and when he looked inside the bag said “I love Lion bars!”
Douglas
We chatted and I discovered that his name was Douglas and that he had come down to Bournemouth about 18 months ago to find his brother and his mother. He had obviously had an altercation with his brother, which had resulted in the brother throwing Douglas out of his flat, so he was now homeless. He said he didn’t know where his mother was, and said she may even be dead, as far as he knew.
I stayed and chatted with him for about half an hour – he told me that he used to work in a park in Scarborough and that he had enjoyed that – I mentioned that my husband was a keen gardener, so we talked a bit about gardening and about how it’s good to see things growing.
A beautiful rose from our garden
He also told me that he had a chess set in his trolley which he took everywhere with him – he offered to give me a game, although he said there was a black pawn missing, but he quickly said that didn’t really matter. I agreed, but said that I wasn’t very good at chess. However, I told him my husband was a good player, whereupon he told me to bring him down and he would “whap him”. I told him my game was Scrabble, so he said he was good at that too – I almost wished I had a Scrabble board with me!
Despite the fact that Douglas looked rather unkempt, I felt I wanted to sit next to him and just show him some kindness and compassion – although I hoped he wouldn’t feel patronised. I don’t know how many people saw me sitting there with him, but I didn’t really care – everyone has a story, and I was happy to listen to Douglas’s story and so many people had passed him by and not bothered to even acknowledge him. I did ask his permission to take a photograph and he kindly agreed but said he didn’t know why I would want to take a photograph of him – I said he had a lovely smile and that was a good enough reason!
Sometimes we can get so complacent with all the good things that we have but I knew that the “niggling feeling” that I had when I went back up to the flat was God speaking to me and telling me to go back down and find Douglas.
My husband is well used to me doing things like this, so I don’t think it was any surprise to him when I put my shoes back on and said I was going back down to the pier, having filled a bag with bits and pieces for Douglas.
I was truly blessed by being with Douglas, and perhaps some of you reading this might be surprised. Sharing God’s love and compassion is a truly humbling experience and even if I blessed Douglas, he blessed me more. Despite what Reef had said, he was certainly not a “very old man” I would guess that he was in his early 50s but you will see from his face, that he has obviously had a hard life.
I did go back down the next morning, but he was nowhere to be seen – no doubt he had moved on because on Bank Holiday Monday there were thousands down at the Pier to see Bournemouth Football Team ride past their fans on a large open-top double decker bus.
I daresay if he had been there, he would have been “moved on” by those in authority – thinking that people and especially tourists don’t want to see “that sort of thing” – but you know, we sometimes need to see homeless people and their plight to appreciate that we are so blessed by all that we have.
The king will answer, “Whenever you did it for any of my people,
no matter how unimportant they seemed,
you did it for me.”
Matthew 25:40
LIFE IS A CHALLENGE! 