Day 301 to 306 – The Sleeping Children

During my recent trip to Paris, France, I found myself walking through the Saint-Germain district. This is quite an affluent area of the City with many luxurious houses, hotels, shops and restaurants. It is also the home of the ‘homeless’; men, women and children who live and sleep on the streets.

I passed two young children, maybe 5 or 6 yo, sleeping between their mother and father on the sidewalk. The father was patting his child to help her settle; the noise of the busy traffic and pedestrians was probably the reason why the child could not sleep.

What a pitiful and sad sight. Even now as I write this entry I am brought to tears. Why, in a City as rich and beautiful as Paris, do we have children sleeping on the streets? What sort of people are we to allow such a situation to persist in a, so called, civilised Western society?

I gave the family all the Euros I had … which wasn’t much. I wish I could have done more.

Other acts of kindness achieved this week included:

2 x Gave cash to a charity
1 x Gave cash to a homeless family
2 x Gave cash to a beggar
25 x Proactively ‘gave-way’ to other drivers
1 x Picked up rubbish in the neighbourhood
4 x Voluntary work for Ipsos Access Panels
2 x Gave a spontaneous gift to a friend
2 x Voluntary work with the local community association
1 x Did an act of kindness to a colleague

5 x Gave a big smile to a stranger

1 x Gave respite care to a family
6 x Proactively ‘gave-way’ to a pedestrian

1 x Gave cash to a Big Issue seller

Sub total: 53
Running total: 3276

Target: 3000+ in 12months

Commenced 30^thNovember 2011

Motivation for ‘’My Ten-a-day’

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said, “I made a difference for that one.”