Health Food -> Improved Vision?

At least once a week I make a walk down to Fresh & Easy to get food for the rest of the week. It is one of my favorite stores now as they have a great selection of salads, prepared meals, flavored water, etc... all the healthy stuff made easy and affordable! (I feel like a commercial.)

I also appreciate the walk because it is a good mile to get there. Nothing like a little bit of exercise on my lunch break! Usually I have a couple of my coworkers with me on the walk, but today I was solo and it was pretty nice and relaxing.

Then something happened to me that rarely, if ever, happens on the streets of Hollywood: Someone touched me. Not in a flirtatious sense and not in a way of someone trying to sell me something either, but a genuine touch to my arm like someone was reaching out for me. It shocked me. Who reaches out like that? In the middle of a crowd of people, it was impossible to see who it was that did it. But as I emerged from the crowd, I took the opportunity to look back and see who it could have been.

It was a little boy, not older than ten years old, with some sort of apparent handicap, and... very possibly blind. That's who reached out. Tenderly touching my arm as I brushed by without even taking notice of him. It choked me up... and I couldn't figure out why at first.

My initial thought was, "Jen, you used to be such a non-cry-er... and now? You're a pansy!" It's true too. While I used to pride myself in my 'strength' that was shown through not crying (boy was I wrong about what strength is), now a simple touch on the street had my throat tight. Next thing you know, I'll be crying through "Where the Red Fern Grows" like SOME people! (You know I love you mom!) :)

But as I continued to walk closer to the store, I started to realize not only why it shocked me so much, but why it touched me too. I watched the people who walked by me and I wondered if they also, deep down inside, want to be touched. To be seen. To be noticed. But given that we are people on our 'own walks of life' and people with hesitations that would stop us from reaching out, unlike this boy, who would truly show it? Instead, in this city of Hollywood, the people 'reach out' in the only way they know how to: through entertainment, through fake relationships, and, of course, through sex. Is this really what they're looking for? No. There's no way it could be, but it's the closest they can get to what they know deep down inside that they want.

It made me want to reach out to them in return. To get to know them. To see them for who they are. To gentle touch them on the arm, if nothing else. Not that I haven't wanted that for a long time before, but it made it stronger.

It made me want to give everyone I saw a hug. Even the man in a full red jumper yelling at himself. No... especially him.

Here I was, the one who could see, and yet I learned a new way of 'seeing' people from someone who couldn't...

"...God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong..." - 1 Corinthians 1:27