I was at Shopper’s Drug Mart (a pharmacy) downtown in the city that I live. There was this man, he was struggling … talking to himself, was loud and screeching … people were starring at him and made faces when they walked by him. The lady who worked at the store wasn’t sure what to do, she was about to call security.

The gentleman walked up to me and asked me if I knew him to which I replied I didn’t. He went on to talk about how he had lost his muscles and he couldn’t find them, he was quite upset about this. I didn’t ridicule or tell him to go away. I talked to him as I would anyone else.

I was in the milk section (looking for almond milk) and asked him if he wanted a chocolate milk as I heard it was good for muscles and he’d have his muscles back. He said “yeah, yeah that might help right?”. They were 2 for $5.00 I offered to buy him 2. He then asked “is it ok if I have 1 of these instead Miss?” point to a Top drink, I told him “of course” and we went to the register and I paid for his drink.

I asked him if he was going to be ok for the rest of the night and he said he would cause he could find his muscles now. It’s really that simple. We just need to be kind. He just needed to be heard and respected.

When we went up to the register to pay. I said to the lady “I’m going to buy this gentleman’s his drink”. He thanked me and left.

As he departed the store, the cashier said to me “that’s very kind of you to do that”, to which I replied “we should all be kinder and gentler to one another”.

Can we all make a deal to be kinder and gentler?  Kindness counts.

“Be kind, don’t judge, and have respect for others. If we can all do this, the world would be a better place”.
~ Jasmine Guinness