Random Acts of Kindness: When ideas don’t work out

As you are probably aware I’m an ideas person, but just because I think of lots of ideas it doesn’t mean they’re always guaranteed to work. It would be great if they all did, but then it wouldn’t be real life if they all worked.

So last week I met a guy who was pretty nice, actually met him naturally for a change and we got on well. We’d already had each other’s numbers but hadn’t met until now. He mentioned that he liked chocolate brownies and obviously testing the waters and seeing if they could be potential for something more I made some, as a way of impressing him. I sent him a text message to say I had made some for a 'work colleague' and there were some spare if he wanted any. But alas, no reply at all, not even if he was to say he was busy to accept them. And that’s fine, a little disappointed but as I learnt at the age of 3, you can’t force people to like you.

But there was a dilemma…..I had made chocolate brownies, what was I to do with them? I was working in London, and most if not all my colleagues were out and I wasn’t going to be eating brownies all day. So I wanted to do something I always wanted to, give some food to the homeless. However with a heavy workload I couldn’t go out at lunch in the end and find someone to give them to. Some of my colleagues were in after all and had a few, and a couple of guys at volunteering had some, but I still had a layer of brownies in the box.

I was walking to the tube and just as you entered Piccadilly Circus tube station sat a homeless man with a sign simply saying he was very hungry. I walked past him and then decided to walk back and ask him if he liked chocolate brownies. He said they were his favourite and so I gave him the bottom layer of brownies in the box which totalled around 6-7. His eyes lit up and I could tell he really appreciated the gesture.

Who knows how long those brownies may last him. Could be one meal, he could graze on them all day. It made me really happy knowing that the little brownies I made which took 5 minutes to cook might have made a longer impact. I’m going to try and make more cakes in the future and give them to homeless people.

And as for the guy? Well life is too short to have people in your life that don’t appreciate a good chocolate brownie!