Instincts

As I came off the bus today on my way home with a few of the regular commuters, I noticed a young girl about 14, standing on the pavement (curb) about to cross the road. Upon further investigation I noticed she had a white cane indicating she was blind. My obvious instinct as well as that of others who came off was to rush off to her and try to help her cross the street. She was trying to cross on a curve where even the sighted can get caught out with cars speeding round the bend. We all crowded round her each with questions ...Where are you going? Where are your parents or minder? Are you ready to cross the street? One could see she was getting visibly confused with all the strange voices and questions a she turned her head from side to side trying to work out where people where. This went on for about 30 sec but seemed much longer when her minder called from further down the road "Its okay, Its okay". She then explained to us that the girl was actually training to cross the street on her own, getting use to listening for cars and estimating how far they were away and we had just ruined it.
I came away from the situation thinking that we all try to do that in life...try to help someone because we think we know better...we think because people are disabled they need our help for everything. We try to rush to other peoples help but not consider what they need? Do we think about what help they need rather than what help we think they need. The girl didn't need our help in crossing the street, she was learning to do that on her own such that when we are not there she can continue life without relying on anyone.