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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Saarah Hamayun

I used to work in a café, and I can remember the winter mornings, I’d catch the early bus through the quiet streets of Bradford, the town still half-asleep. The cold would bite at my bones as I opened up, switching on the lights and waking the coffee machine from its slumber. The divine smell of the coffee would welcome me as I pulled the first shot of espresso.

Soon, the rosy-faced commuters would arrive all carrying their own stories. I saw people on days when they’d just lost their job, or ended a relationship, or finished an exam. And every day, I tried to meet them with a smile. Sometimes I’d write a little message of hope on their cup or gift a blueberry muffin to soften a hard day, or simply open the door to someone who just needed the warmth. I still remember the morning a chap came in before work, he dropped his change and bent to pick it up when his trousers suddenly split right down the seam! We scrambled to find a fleece to spare him the embarrassment, but we all had a good laugh.

I didn’t realise it then, but that tiny café was its own small world; a refuge where a word, a look, or a warming cup of coffee could make all the difference to someone’s day.

Now, in my role at a children’s hospice, I meet families in our Sanctuary – which itself feels like a little refuge nestled in the hospice gardens, I don’t know what burdens they carry when they walk through the door, I just know that I’ll meet them where they are, with compassion and with kindness.

We sometimes think impact belongs to people in powerful places, but we can turn even the quietest corner of the world into a sanctuary.

Every encounter holds the chance to lighten someone’s load, to remind another person that they are seen.

I pray that we bring light to the corners of the world we inhabit where even a smile is a small act of charity. These are the lights that warm the world.

Amen

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