Just Feed One: My Homeless Encounter

Hi, I'm creating this video to share with you an experience that I had, and hopefully it will be interesting to you. I won't take too long. Today, or actually yesterday, I was walking— okay, maybe I should back up even further. A couple days ago. Anyway, I travel for a living, so I'm in Toronto, and I was in Toronto walking down the street on my way home from a yoga class. And I noticed a bed had been made on the floor inside of a bus kind of waiting area. Nobody was in it, but I noticed it, and I just kept on walking, of course, went home.

The next day—

and typically what happens is in my yoga practice, I will, you know, at the end of my practice, I will be very grateful for having had an opportunity to practice and feel great and work out. But then I'll ask God what I can do in return for being able to do that. And I got this image, and there is a, you know, just kind of like an idea popped into my head. There is a Quiznos— I'm not sure if you know it, but it's a sub kind of shop— Quiznos right across the street from the yoga studio. So I got this idea: get a Quiznos and go to Quiznos, buy a sandwich, get like the whole deal— sandwich, chips, a drink. You know, don't give him half of my sandwich. Don't eat half and give him half, right? Or my leftovers. Get it like he was, you know, like it was created, like it was for him. And that's what I did. I thought of the guy, whoever— I presumed guy— whoever was sleeping in that bed, and create a sandwich or buy a sandwich. So I did. I went, I bought a sandwich. I bought, I think it was like a beef and Swiss and Doritos and like a lemonade, put it in a bag, and then I bought my sandwich. And so I had two bags basically I was carrying. And so I walk up and I see this state, this little place like inside the bus kind of waiting area, and right as I'm walking up, a bus stops and a bunch of people are getting off. And so I keep walking and I peek my head in and I'm like, hey, have you eaten? And of course he said no.

And so I said, "Oh, well, I bought you lunch, or I bought you dinner." So I handed him the bag, and of course he was surprised, and he was like, "Thank you so much!" And I was like, "You're welcome." And so I walk away, and then this woman comes up behind me and she goes, "That was really nice." And I said, "Yeah, it is really nice." And that was it. In that moment, actually over the next few minutes as I walked back to my hotel, I kind of thought to myself, at no point did I really say to the man or to that woman why I did what I did. And the reason I did what I did was because of my faith, because I believe that God gave me that idea to take care of that person, to buy him that lunch or dinner.

So, um, so today I went back again and I went and I, um, bought him a lunch today. Well, it doesn't matter, but anyway, I went, I got lunch, got him the same sandwich, Doritos, lemonade, and I brought it. And this time I went to a coffee shop. I got a $10 gift card, put it in there because it was— it's really cold and I was cold, so I was like, I need to get you some coffee. So got that, put it in there, and I came by and. And I walked by and I wrote in the gift card that I got him, I said, you know, "May God bless you and keep you." And when I gave it to him, I told him, I said, "I'm doing this because of God's love for you and God's love for me." And he introduced himself, his name was Joseph. And now I know that every time I'm here in the city, I will probably walk down that same street and hope to see that same sweet, nice face. And I hope I'll be able to help him out, because it felt wonderful to help, to provide food for somebody who is homeless, to be a light in his day. I mean, he was so happy to see me. It was amazing. You know, it could have been my dad. I mean, he was like 60, probably 60, 70 years old. I mean, it could just as easily have been my dad or my uncle or somebody that I know But regardless, I just felt called to take care of that person. If I can, I should. And that's kind of the philosophy I came from. So I say all this because I was looking at my email, and in my email I have a quote that I have often used, and it says, "If you can't feed 100, then just feed one," and it's by Mother Teresa. And so today I feel like, you know, my heart calls me to feed 100. But today I just fed one and it felt amazing. So hope you enjoyed my story and I'll let you know if anything else cool happens while I'm here. Chat soon. Bye.