Give because… You can
It was like this time of the year when I joined Change Your Life group to help in the renovations of pediatric cancer ward at Shumaisi hospital. For more details refer to this blog post.
Now, where was I? Yeah, one of the kids who helped us “Sara” is no longer with us, may she rest in peace. A couple of months ago, a friend of mine showed me a video of Sara when she was in her late stages of the disease. I felt sad for the little girl yet I was amazed at how strong she was.
This year, a group of young enthusiastic girls decided to gather up at the beginning of Ramdan and go to King Fahad Medical City and visit the pediatric’s ward to give the kids Qarqe’an. I told my mom about it, she was excited. Later on, I went to get small gift bags, mom got the candies and sweets and my little brother took care of the packaging. I loved the fact that the whole house was involved in the preparation process.
On Monday 16th of August, mom and I went to King Fahad Medical City around 9:30 pm. We met the group and started our visit with greeting the kids and their families and giving them the goodie bags. It was an overwhelming experience. Seeing kids and infants sick was very devastating. The only happy thought was that we were able to make them smile with our simple gifts.
A lady from Jeddah was so touched and happy with our unannounced visit; since she hasn’t been out of the hospital for quite sometime and she doesn’t know anybody in town.
I was telling myself on the way home, that the whole thing didn’t cost me that much; a couple of hours of my time, a hundred riyals for the bags while mom took care of the sweets and candies.
I remembered reading a sweet piece of information in A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. It says in order to overcome the depression and negative feelings; one should participate in selfless activities. It gives this great self-worthy feeling as you are contributing to this community and helping others. It makes you feel that your presence in this world has a meaning no matter how big or small it is.
I noticed that there are a lot of active groups like Change Your Life and Yalla on Facebook. It makes me smile to see young people working enthusiastically in such activities. I decided to write this blog to post and share my little experience and hope that it’ll inspire someone to do the same and write about it.
Give without expecting something in return.. Give because you have the power to do so.. As someday when you feel that your world is about to crash, these little deeds that you did mindlessly will be the source of light in your darkest nights.
