Today I learned that one of the biggest difficulties working and sleeping on the street is that you miss all the services that start after you work and end before work is finished. While the daily grind gave me something to do and passed the hour more quickly, they also made me more dependent upon the generosity of collegues and friends. I didn't have the option to choose an anonymous meal. It also made me wonder how long it would take to transform a unique opportunity to help someone who spends so much time giving to others, before I was seen as an obnoxious person who is only know for begging for what I need.
Professionally I beg all the time: for supplies for the homeless, for grants and donations (you can send yours online through the link on the right), as offering and for volunteers. Yet these forms of begging are written into the service or are acceptable because I'm asking at the behest of others.
Tonight I was grateful for Sacred Cocktails and the opportunity for a free meal and drink surrounded with a great talk ad great people. Afterwards as I prepared my sleeping bag I ran into a reoccuring friend from several street retreats. Now sober and housed, he was working to create safe places for other GLBT homeless folk. It was inspiring to see how far one person could come and the way one chance encounter on a street retreat could lead to such total life transformation.
He other thing I'm noticing from working and sleeping on the streets is how exhausted I am at night. While it makes it easier to fall asleep with the roaring traffic going by, it makes it harder to blog in my phone here in the dim light of the doorway. So, I'll call it a night and blog more in the morning. Good night all. Sweet dreams.
Location:The steps of First Unitarian Universalist Church, San Francisco
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