Stranger

There are so many people in the world. And sometimes I look into faces in a crowd and think, gosh they look so strange. Sometimes I think, she looks like she’s had a hard life. He looks like he can’t speak what he feels the most. But I have so little compassion in my heart, and I look at all these many people and think it’s way too hard.

Then sometimes, a stranger looks into my eyes and smiles a real smile. Like the man who turned around into me in the tube one day, and smiled such a genuine smile that went all the way to his eyes and lit them for a few seconds before we moved aside for each other. Or the one with a young child, smiling with pride and apology and tiredness and hope, and some of all of that comes into me as well.

Sometimes strangers remind us of hope.