I was in Baltimore for a convention. I had to get over something that may plague many of you. As I walked to and from my hotel to the convention center, homeless men were drawn to me. The sidewalk was often crowded but I noticed they often just waited as the crowd passed by and then they came to me. One of my Divine commandments is to help someone each day. 

 I gave each man a considerable amount of money. Each had the same unusual response. It wasn't the "God bless you" or the "Thank you" that was the unusual response, it was "the other thing." It was "the other thing" that I had to get over. They were all stinking. 

You could smell them from several feet away. That's just fact plain and simple. Living on the streets with no showers, no baths, no washcloths, no deodorant, and no wet wipes for who knows how long will have you stinking. So they smelled. I was clean. I was freshly showered, scrubbed, rubbed, deodorized, sanitized, lotioned, and fragrant. Their smell was a major factor in the thing I had to get over. Because they ALL wanted to hug me.

 Do you see the problem? I was thinking, "Just take the money and go. I don't want to hug you. I don't want your smell to get on me. I don't want whatever else that may be on you to get on me. I don't know if you will try to steal my wallet." Don't act like you are so high and mighty, you'd feel the same. 

I hugged them anyway even though inside I was recoiling. It wasn't until my 5 AM prayer in the darkness of the dawn that I understood. They were lonely, cast out, dejected, rejected, forgotten and forsaken. Yes they needed money, but they also needed something else much more. They needed a hug. 

The money was easy for me to give; the hug was not because that required the risk of me getting dirty. I was thinking the money was the only thing they needed. I realized it wasn't even the main thing they needed. Most toss them a coin or at most a dollar then rush away. I thought, "Suppose I had reached out to hug them instead of them reaching out to hug someone who didn't want to touch them?" Suppose? We are all children at heart. 

And whether we are children of the streets or children of the suites we all have the same needs. Needs that far exceed money. We have the extreme need to be touched in love. To be hugged by someone who cares. The next time you help someone who is down. 

Look into their eyes and see into their soul. Give them what you need when life has beaten and battered you down. It doesn't matter how much money you have because it will cost you nothing. And you might find that afterwards you feel a whole lot cleaner.