smiley face stickers and more than enough...
So, today at Trinity, I got stickered by a 4 year old who, with her mom, was seeking help in figuring out how to find Section 8 housing with a voucher, on the bus line, near a good school. It can be done, but you have to have a phone, and a bus pass and you have to do a little smooth talking. Those things will at least get you an appointment. Oh, you also need internet access so you can check the current should.availability of housing right this very minute, which is how we found a possible place in a good area, near a good school, with a landlord who was willing to work with her on the security deposit. That combination is rare and miraculous and as it was all happening, even as I was getting stickered by the little four year old and talking to the landlord, I could hardly believe it. After that phone call I had one smiley face sticker on my head, at or near the "third eye" area, and one on my right hand. I felt pretty cool.
Later, when W. told me a story about...well can't tell you that, he told me it was confidential, but let's just say it was a great story involving drama, buses and radio and prayer. I love it when W. tells stories because he talks haltingly, speech is hard for him. As an actor and mime, a skill learned of necessity, he's brilliant.
J. was there, haven't seen him in weeks. It was a nice moment when the four year old came over to where I was talking with J. and spontaneously hugged him. J. inspires that in people, at least in me and in this 4 year old. He just does. He's sweet and earnest and honest and he needs people to be nice to him, but they aren't so much. Every time I see him, every single time, before I can even say hi, he asks how I'm doing, how's my life, what have I been up to? He carries everything he owns in a canvas tote, he sleeps on the street and goes hungry a lot because people give him a hard time and yet, he always greets me with, "How are you doing?".
A young boy came in, 19 years old, who told me he needs surgery and special foods. He can only eat organic foods and whole grains, things you don't usually find at the shelters, sometimes they have it, but it's rare. He has other issues, too, but as I was talking to him, I quickly realized they were issues that we couldn't fix, not today, not with our limitations. We would need a Dr., some bloodtests, free medication, etc. The boy told me he'd try to go to the free clinic tomorrow, but he wouldn't promise me he would go. My friend Tbone helped by mentioning that the new Dr. at the free clinic was a beautiful Irish redhead who is super nice (which explains why TBone has been getting to the Dr. more often...)
I really wanted the boy to make a promise, but he wouldn't do it. He would only say he'd try to go and was leaning that way and he appreciated my effort to get a promise.
We had cake today, thanks to Whole Foods which provided a $100 gift card for cakes. Each month we'll celebrate birthdays, starting today. Cakes are important. Community is important. Ritual is important too, even silly ones like birthday cake, how else are you going to celebrate your own birthday, your Dad's birthday, the birthday of someone you haven't seen in years, like a kid you had to leave behind or a brother you haven't seen in years. That's why cake is sometimes as important and necessary as soup and bread.
Still, I was wishing we had a little soup and bread, too. At the end of the day, a few people just seemed hungry. A lot of times people come to Trinity who don't like the noise and crowd of other shelters, they are the quieter souls. We only had three sack lunches, not enough, not nearly. I found a sack of food in the pantry and asked our Center Administrator (CA) about it. He suggested we give out some of, it, someone must have donated it.. So we did. I found canned peaches and tuna and crackers for J. An organic granola bar for the boy and for my friend E., a microwaveable beef and potatoes dinner. They were very happy to get the food.
It was then that another volunteer, one who is just leaving homelessnes behind, who is on a very limited income, who has an empty pocket book and a very large heart, smiled and said, to us. "You know, that's my food..". No, we didn't know, and we were chagrined. Of course you're suppose to put your name on stuff, especially on food in the pantry, still, we all get busy and often it doesn't happen. He just said, "They need it, they need it more than I do."
Now, this was probably true, but, I told him, in my well thought out longtime volunteer babble, "we have to take care of ourselves, too, we have to have boundaries." He just grinned at me, (I'm kind of famous there for not doing so well with the boundaries, I go with my gut and I don't always err on the side of the rules and 98% of the time, it's perfectly fine anyway.)
Then I said, something like, let me pay you for what we took, which as soon as I said it sounded stupid and self-serving and he said, no deal. So, I just shrugged my shoulders and went to wash down tables.
A nice lesson in generosity, and in not assuming a sack full of food is extra food and in a very localized version of the trickle down theory, and in gratitude that most of the time, most of us have more than enough to share. Today I got to see again how little things like canned peaches and tuna and microwaveable dinners and smiley face stickers and granola bars can be exactly what someone needs.
A special thank you to Whole Foods and to the man who shared his sack of food.
Here's a link to an article I wish I'd written. I love the ending and I hope you do, too. How indeed do we get our sanity back?
Later, when W. told me a story about...well can't tell you that, he told me it was confidential, but let's just say it was a great story involving drama, buses and radio and prayer. I love it when W. tells stories because he talks haltingly, speech is hard for him. As an actor and mime, a skill learned of necessity, he's brilliant.
J. was there, haven't seen him in weeks. It was a nice moment when the four year old came over to where I was talking with J. and spontaneously hugged him. J. inspires that in people, at least in me and in this 4 year old. He just does. He's sweet and earnest and honest and he needs people to be nice to him, but they aren't so much. Every time I see him, every single time, before I can even say hi, he asks how I'm doing, how's my life, what have I been up to? He carries everything he owns in a canvas tote, he sleeps on the street and goes hungry a lot because people give him a hard time and yet, he always greets me with, "How are you doing?".
A young boy came in, 19 years old, who told me he needs surgery and special foods. He can only eat organic foods and whole grains, things you don't usually find at the shelters, sometimes they have it, but it's rare. He has other issues, too, but as I was talking to him, I quickly realized they were issues that we couldn't fix, not today, not with our limitations. We would need a Dr., some bloodtests, free medication, etc. The boy told me he'd try to go to the free clinic tomorrow, but he wouldn't promise me he would go. My friend Tbone helped by mentioning that the new Dr. at the free clinic was a beautiful Irish redhead who is super nice (which explains why TBone has been getting to the Dr. more often...)
I really wanted the boy to make a promise, but he wouldn't do it. He would only say he'd try to go and was leaning that way and he appreciated my effort to get a promise.
We had cake today, thanks to Whole Foods which provided a $100 gift card for cakes. Each month we'll celebrate birthdays, starting today. Cakes are important. Community is important. Ritual is important too, even silly ones like birthday cake, how else are you going to celebrate your own birthday, your Dad's birthday, the birthday of someone you haven't seen in years, like a kid you had to leave behind or a brother you haven't seen in years. That's why cake is sometimes as important and necessary as soup and bread.
Still, I was wishing we had a little soup and bread, too. At the end of the day, a few people just seemed hungry. A lot of times people come to Trinity who don't like the noise and crowd of other shelters, they are the quieter souls. We only had three sack lunches, not enough, not nearly. I found a sack of food in the pantry and asked our Center Administrator (CA) about it. He suggested we give out some of, it, someone must have donated it.. So we did. I found canned peaches and tuna and crackers for J. An organic granola bar for the boy and for my friend E., a microwaveable beef and potatoes dinner. They were very happy to get the food.
It was then that another volunteer, one who is just leaving homelessnes behind, who is on a very limited income, who has an empty pocket book and a very large heart, smiled and said, to us. "You know, that's my food..". No, we didn't know, and we were chagrined. Of course you're suppose to put your name on stuff, especially on food in the pantry, still, we all get busy and often it doesn't happen. He just said, "They need it, they need it more than I do."
Now, this was probably true, but, I told him, in my well thought out longtime volunteer babble, "we have to take care of ourselves, too, we have to have boundaries." He just grinned at me, (I'm kind of famous there for not doing so well with the boundaries, I go with my gut and I don't always err on the side of the rules and 98% of the time, it's perfectly fine anyway.)
Then I said, something like, let me pay you for what we took, which as soon as I said it sounded stupid and self-serving and he said, no deal. So, I just shrugged my shoulders and went to wash down tables.
A nice lesson in generosity, and in not assuming a sack full of food is extra food and in a very localized version of the trickle down theory, and in gratitude that most of the time, most of us have more than enough to share. Today I got to see again how little things like canned peaches and tuna and microwaveable dinners and smiley face stickers and granola bars can be exactly what someone needs.
A special thank you to Whole Foods and to the man who shared his sack of food.
Here's a link to an article I wish I'd written. I love the ending and I hope you do, too. How indeed do we get our sanity back?
1 Comments:
Stacy,
Your writings reach my core. It has the power to make me smile with tears.
~L~
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