Kindness from the Heart
Being friendly at this day in age is a toss-up. You feel like letting your guard down, but remember that people rarely do things outside of satisfying their own personal gains. It’s hard to trust someone you barely know because of past relationships or even memories that may have tarnished your ability to befriend others.
There’s always exceptions to the rule. A restaurant located in Williamsville, NY decided to extend a nice gesture to one of their most dedicated customers. Owen Long is a boy who suffers from autism. His daily grind involves having to deal with a world that won’t easily cater to his perspective.
“We knew all day we were going to eat at Sun Restaurant. Owen likes to know exactly where he’s going to eat every night,” said Sandra Block of Williamsville.
Since Owen suffered from speech impediment, he and his dad rehearsed his request to ask for the takeout menu at Sun Restaurant. He practiced, again and again, to make sure everything was said properly and clearly.
“So he said to him Owen just go and get the takeout menu and come right back and they practiced it in the car, you’re going to ask what are you going to ask, take out menu, okay good,” said Block.
Soon after Long got his takeout menu, he admitted he was feeling hungry
The restaurant partner and manager, Aye Thein, listened to the boy’s request and knew just what to do.
Thein saw this as just practicing metta, which in Burmese culture is a just another way to offer love and kindness on a very large scale. It’s a very mindful movement that was engrained in the culture so that it may inspire people to take action for the future in a positive way.
Meditation is a huge part of metta that tries to address rehabilitation of the soul to some degree. As a result, Owen felt right at home once Thein whipped up a beef curry meal. His delightful reaction sparked a massive wave online from all over.
“After that he said I’m hungry and when I look at his face from my heart I said oh he’s a very special boy to me. I said what do you want to eat honey I asked him and he said I want to eat beef,” said Thein.
The entire experience immediately went viral.
The post on Facebook took off with hundreds of views and then escalated to over 1k!
Oddly enough, Thein had no clue that Owen had autism. The restaurant manager was just happy to share some of Burmese culture with the lad as well as give him a tasty treat to go along. At this point, the post has over 18 thousand likes!
Wholesome stories like these are what drives people to do better. It shows that some of us still have humanity left inside to cultivate beautiful relationships with complete strangers who come from completely different places. Owen Long will treasure his experience with Sun Restaurant for many years to come.
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