Who are you?
Who are you in touch with?
I am in touch with humans who are going through tough times
I am in touch with humans who have gone through tough times
I am in touch with humans, and privileged to be so,
who are going through massively complex and extremely excruciating times.
If you have a bed to sleep in tonight.
Thank God,
or whoever you acknowledge,
for this privilege.
If you could not sleep in your own home tonight,
where would you go to sleep?
Think - not just read.
OK - a friend or relative - I guess.
Second question - how long could you sleep there
before you felt you would need to move on?
Think - decide - don't just read.
If you had no money, no bank account
and you had to leave home/relative/friend - where would you go?
If you was not wanted at home,
if not welcome amongst your friends - how would you feel inside?
So many young humans, and much older ones,
have experienced relationship breakdowns.
Often caused by substance misuse, behaviour,
mental health issues, slump of confidence including basic inadequacy.
These humans are in pain and it is not chosen.
It is a slide into poverty, of spirit too, and a massive stigma.
The cycle for them will not change
unless other humans step out of their comfort zones
and contribute to those who are in greater need than themselves.
We can always position ourselves as 'needy'.
If we always only look to see those who are richer.
Yet so often, never really consider, or even look to see,
those who are, so called,'below' us.
All of us cannot sell up and go and live in the poorest community.
All of us cannot us cannot stand alongside homeless humans.
All of us cannot us cannot change jobs to work alongside youngsters in vital need.
All of us cannot, yes we can, look out for those
who are on the fringe of our
vision
social network
friends
street
workplace,
frequented haunts
everyday places
and go out to them
like no other
who they have met that day.
Sometimes
week
month
year,
sometimes
life.
"To be free is to know who we are,
with all that is beautiful,
all the brokenness in us;
it is to love our own values,
to embrace them,
and to develop them;
it is to be anchored in a vision and a truth
but also to be open to others and so,
to change.
Freedom lies in discovering that the truth
is not a set of fixed certitudes
but a mystery we enter into,
one step at a time.
It is a process of going deeper
and deeper
into an unfathomable reality."
Jean Vanier
Becoming Human
