Break your ego coz we don’t need that

After class this morning, I decided I needed to come home for a nap. On the way, I stopped to get Chinese food that I've been craving for a few days, and also decided to pick up milk from the grocery store (and a number of other useless items). It's a beautiful day in Washington, D.C. As I was walking towards the cross walk, I noticed two people at the corner - one, a young man, and the other seemed to be an older man - and the younger man was assisting him. The second person turned in my direction and said - excuse me, could you help me cross the street. And I stopped, and was like - um, sure. I soon realized that I was mistaken and the person was actually a woman - lets say her name was Carol. Carol was propping herself up with two canes, I don't know why - but her legs didn't seem to have the full strength or ability to support her. I realized that the guy was physically holding her up on her left side, and she motioned for me to grab her arm to hold her up from the right. I had groceries in my hands, and basically shifted all of them to my right hand - and tried to support her with my left.

One of Carol's canes had gotten stuck in the elevator shaft earlier that day (or perhaps the day before) and was slipping. We had to wait about 30-40 seconds for the light to change, and began to cross the street. I realized how dangerous it was that her cane was slipping - the rubber support was not able to grip and support her, and if it slipped - she would be immobilized.

We got across the street (this is near the UDC metro) and she asked for us to help her to the building (UDC campus building) where she hoped to get others to help her where she needed to go. From our conversation, I gathered that she had to go to the bookstore to get a book that she needed for her teaching certificate (I'm not entirely sure what it was about). By this point, the dude and I are sweating ... and Carol says - well, you guys are getting quite a workout. And I'm thinking to myself, subha'anAllah ... this is five minutes of our lives, this woman has to work this hard to do anything! Long story short, we get Carol into the building, and seated near the bookstore where she could get someone to help her with what she needed. As we headed back, the boy said, "wow that was quite a work out." To which, I could only respond, "well, it was probably more difficult for her than for us."

My writing does no justice to this woman's story ... as I walked back to my car, sat down and drove away ... I began thinking ... it blows my mind that this woman could not walk without assistance. It served as an amazing reminder of how incredibly blessed I am ... to be able to get neccessary things done, like walking - to the bookstore, without assistance. In the six hours that I have been awake today - I have had the ability to do more than Carol could, and I wonder - have I done that time justice. The other thing I was thinking is that people in these circumstances are put in a very humbling position where they sometimes need to ask for help. I personally consider myself a very proud person, and often find it difficult to ask for help ... but to recognize that we are dependent ... we need each other, and of course the strength of a much higher being to survive. Such encounters are blessings from Allah, becuase it serves as a reminder that we need to break our egos ... and humble ourselves.

An hour earlier, I was worried about whether I'd have time to take a nap, whether my bank account was overdrafted (because I'm stupid and didn't deposit a check), whether I'm going to get this paper done ... not stopping for a moment to be thankful that I woke up this morning in a warm bed, was able to drive to school - benefit from two lectures, interact with people that are dear to me, buy lunch, go to the grocery store ... that I have the ability to do these simple things, when so many others may not ... blows my mind.

** this post isn't really coherent, but I wanted to get down my thoughts and reflections quickly ***