For most of us, our time in the snow will be followed with hot cocoa and a warm fire. It is fun, we are usually dressed in layers and it is always voluntary. We consider it fun.
Just saw a Winter Snow Advisory in effect until 9AM tomorrow. For the homeless in my town, pretty bad news. I don't know alot about being homeless except that my father was for a time. For many different reasons, he could not stay our home and had nowhere else to go. He soon found a spot at the Veterans Home where he stayed for a while.
The last couple of years I have thought about the homeless often. Mostly in winter, but winter just adds more complications, being homeless isn't easy anytime of the year. Might sound a bit strange, but several times a week, I imagine I live in a homeless shelter. I am by myself. It is not warm but I have an adequate blanket. I am on a low cot so I can see under a sea of beds. I hear all the noises and smell all the smells. Ah, the fragrance of communal living. If there is as they say, a bit of poet in each of us, this is where mine would be found. By the time you experience it, you have long accepted it. Lights are out at 9PM, and there is lots of time to think. About my life and those around me. How did they get here, how did I. Throughout the night, awakened often by crying babies and the loud, constant snore of one. I know the snore well. I know the nights that he is not there, and I hope he is ok.
I always fall asleep about this time but the experience is always a humble one. To imagine what it must be like to find yourself spending nights with strangers, not caring about much else but being not cold. No real thought into what it takes to run a faculty like this, because by the time you get here, that paradigm has shifted.
Sunday afternoon, a local church that opens its doors to the homeless during the day, was showing a movie and at a break, several of the people went outside for a smoke. Two men got into it and one bit off part of another man's ear. I can only speak of my experience and that experience tells of acceptance.
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” May God bless us all...
