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Down the Road .....................................
Homelessness always in season Tonight when you go to bed, when you nestle in upon a comfortable mattress with a blanket of just the right weight above, don’t close your eyes. Stare at the ceiling and then imagine no ceiling at all. Picture the twinkling of stars and watch as the stars disappear in a haze of clouds. Feel the rain upon your face.
Now imagine you’re not in a bed. You are in a sleeping bag (if you are lucky) and you are homeless. Don’t stop there. Picture your children (or grandchildren) in sleeping bags too, trying to slide far enough inside to keep the rain from matting the hair on their head.
Maybe you are lucky and you are not in a sleeping bag at all. Maybe you are in a car listening to the rain drum upon metal. You are in the front seat. If you are lucky it tilts back. The children are in the back. They don’t have pillows. They have clothing propped against arm rests as a place to rest their heads.
Perhaps it’s not raining at all. Maybe the stars are twinkling above. The moon is full and the man who resides within it is winking at your children and making them laugh. Insects are eating you alive. You don’t have a citronella candle or insect repellent. You don’t have the money to buy them. Every penny you can find has to go for food.
You are homeless in the best season of the year. Even then it’s horrific.
The night is long but in the end the sun and the birds rise together. First there is pink, then a ball of gold. The music of nature is exquisite, better than anything you hear from a radio in a passing car. For awhile everything is so perfect that life’s inadequacies slip from your mind.
Then there’s a twinge of hunger. Next comes the sound of someone much younger than you saying they are hungry.
Homelessness and hunger aren’t just part of winter. They are part of life 365 days a year. The seasons change. The problems change. But the hunger and the longing for a place to call home are constant. Homelessness isn’t a choice. It’s a circumstance. And often it comes out of the blue.
Homelessness and hunger happen when someone just making it in life slips a little bit deeper. Maybe their car dies and there’s no money for repairs. That means no transportation in some cases. That means maybe losing a job.
Without a job the cost of housing can become insurmountable.
The sad reality of today’s economy is that as more people need assistance others have less to give. Food pantries everywhere are struggling to keep up with the ever- increasing numbers of people who simply can’t afford food.
We all have the power to do something; it just takes some creative thinking. Talk with your family, your friends, your neighbors. If everyone put just one can of tuna or beans or a jar of peanut butter a week (whatever happens to be on sale) into the food donation bins at a grocery store or in a church, think what a difference it could make.
Picture the mound of donated food that’s possible. One item a week can make a very big difference. Think about that mound week after week.
That would paint a beautiful picture for more people than you realize.
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