The meet-cute

Recently I've been pondering over how easily people can judge one another by their race, appearance, age, gender, personality, skill...etc. A sense of an outsider never really seems to leave me alone. I can sometimes go very deep into thinking how this world emphasizes such superficial things and how human can be awfully judgmental. Such thoughts seriously turn me off.

Well, I happened to meet this old lady yesterday while I was about to leave the shop. She was wearing a vivid pink coat, had two plastic shopping bags in one hand and a walking stick on the other. The shop was located underground and the customers had to climb the steepest stairs to enter/exit the shop. She was struggling to climb up the stairs with her heavy baggage and running out of breath by the time I caught up with her at the stairs. I volunteered to carry her bags and led her by the hand till we reached the top of the stairs. As I walked her to the exit, she kept thanking me.

I don't mean to sound so mushy, but I actually felt a sense of warm feeling running through my body; the light, airy feeling of euphoria that usually comes along (doesn't last too long) when I accomplish something. Some people seek fulfillment and happiness through others but I've learnt an important lesson today. I shall depend upon as little as possible on external things to make myself happy; but rather focus on giving, and depend soley upon myself to be (stay) happy.

"The mind in its own place, and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." John Milton