A LITTLE LOVE AND TENDERNESS

I was at a meeting about 6 months ago and saw an old neighborhood friend that was trying to get off alcohol and crack. I talked to her for awhile and told her that I was in a treatment centre for crack addiction also, man was she surprised. I gave her a card that I grabbed from the centre and told her the positive side of going and how it helped me.
Well a few months passed and I never saw her at the meetings anymore. The treatment centre that I went to has alumni meetings and I had not gone to one in a long time and decided to go that day. I started to walk down the street to the centre and low and behold there she was, we talked and It turned out she just got out the week before. My god did she look happy, I hadn't seen her since then but I knew where she worked so I decided to look in on her and there she was with a smile so big and bright and she looked so proud to see me. She told me it was her birthday and then said not its not really her birthday but close meaning that she is celebrating months of clean time, saying it that way because she is at work.
She asked me what I was doing there and I replied that I came to see her.
When I was leaving her building there was a woman who was obvious to me that she was addicted to some kind of substance. I went and sat down beside her and asked her some straight forward questions and quickly told her I was a recovering crack addict. I asked her about her drug of choice and she said it was crystal meth. I asked her if she had ever been in a treatment centre and that it was really a good place to go and get clean. I guess what I am getting at is if we just try and show that we care, listen without judgement then I think we can have a chance to bring some of our fellow human beings back. I don't know if she will go to treatment but I like to believe that I planted a seed that just might grow, I hope so because there is a beautiful flower waiting to bloom it just needs a little love and tenderness until it can stand on its own.