HOMELESSNESS

I've had a lot of time to think today, much more than anticipated, and I can't help but share a few of my thoughts. Here was my plan for the day. Get up at a decent time. Get a few things around the house done. Be out of the house and headed to the train station by 11. Be to Rush (a town a little north of Dublin) between 12:30 and 2. Analyze my site and be headed back to Dublin by no later than 4 to make it to my night class at 6. However, today did not go as planned. I will spare you the long boring (and rather pathetic) details, but let's just say it was "one of those days". So as I spent most of my day riding some sort of public transportation or walking (walking, walking and walking) by myself I was finding it hard to stay positive.

I am a planner. I hate when I can't plan things or when things don't go as planned. I think this is because I hate stress, so I do whatever I can to avoid it....thus all the planning. So when days like today find their way into my life it typically ends with me psychoanalyzing myself along with all of mankind.

Here I was, having a bad day....and by bad day I mean "bad" day. Then I realized I am blind. Today I had food, shelter, clothing, a safe home with lights and hot water and a bed to sleep in. Yes, things that weren't fun may have been a part of the day, but my day was far from being truly bad.
In between getting off one bus and on to another I grabbed a muffin to curb my "starvation". I noticed they were buy one get one free (which is an irresistible deal to a Dutch girl like me). So I took my two muffins and headed for the bridge where my bus would be stopping. Now I had just bought some muffins earlier that day which were waiting for me at home, so I decided I really had no actual need for my second muffin. Everytime I walk by this bridge there is a homeless person sitting with there cup on either side, so I decided to  give it to however was sitting there. It was a woman probably in her upper 20s who was sitting there this time. We exchanged a few quick words and I gve her the muffin and then got to my bus stop.

I realized who am I to ever say I am having a bad day. In all reality, their are people all around the world who would die to get to live a day like my "bad" days. SO this is me saying praise God for "bad" days.

This leads me to my other thought. I have been thinking about the homeless a lot lately. I mean I have seen lots of homeless people in my life but not on such a consistent basis as I do here. I have never been homeless, which I am forever grateful for, but my philosophy while here has changed a lot when it comes to homelessness. (Again, I am only writing out my thoughts which come from observation and not experience so they are skewed, even if correct.) I used to think about being hungry and tired and cold when I thought of being homeless. Now I think of loneliness and belittlement. I still realize the very real physical needs of the homeless. However, I see the way people pass them by, like they don't exist because their existence is some how "inconvenient" or something. On this "side of the fence" that reality is easy to forget because I am not the one being shunned by every person that passes by. This is, however, a problem that extends far beyond the homeless. So here is my final thought. What if I saw everyone as Jesus saw them. Did He pick and choose which people he stopped and talked to or helped? Was he ever too busy for anyone? Did he ever help anyone based on whether they deserved it....cause He never died for anyone who deserved it. Myself included.

(Written February 1, 2012)