������Ƶ

I have to admit it isn’t easy to write when you’re feeling kind of low in spirit and energy. There are those days that you feel the weight of things more strongly: being tired of eating the same food off the Safeway hot bar; wrapping your shampoo and soap into a plastic bag each day; sitting in the van instead of a living room for privacy. These just name a few of the things that make you feel off when un-homed.

Reading some of the stories about the Kakaako evictions and the tsunami day failings at getting people cleared out effectively made me kind of sad. I know some don’t have their own mobile closet as I do, and some don’t even have decent health. But as I read their struggles I realized something that was the common thread I saw in their experiences and what I’ve been feeling: Homeless, or un-homed, are all heartbroken at the root of it all.

Something in your life has gone terribly wrong and it’s led to this state of existence. And living this way, even in its safest versions, reminds you of that heartbreak each day. It’s just that some days you feel better equipped to shift perspective or to manage the lower energy. Other days it catches you in the worst way and the long hours of a sleepless night drag on seemingly forever.

It’s hard to imagine telling someone who is completely broken in spirit, who may be barely coping with their only belongings in the bags they carry, and who struggle with loneliness and displacement to have a sense of “personal responsibility” and solve their problems. The heartbreak alone is enough to knock regular folks down. Why are we exasperated and expecting troubled folks to figure it out any easier? Yet that seems to be the attitude I read and see out there. It’s something that needs a shift if people really want to help.

Previous posts in this series:

• The Courage Needed
• Bartering Along
• Getting Swept Away… Almost
• Neglect
• Small Measures of Success
• The Interior Life
• I Miss My Bed
• My Closet Has a Flat Tire
• Hopes and Dreams
• Homeless Are People, Too
• Full Monty or Not?
• Back Seat Office
• Staying Connected
• Those Small Indignities
• Putting Your Life in Storage
• One Step Forward, One Step Back
• Exciting New Career Opportunities
• End of the Day
• Solutions Wanted
• When to Hold On, Let Go?
• Location, location, location
• Range of Motion
• Food More Than Sustenance
• Figuring It All Out Someday
• Solitude
• The Good, The Bad
• From The Heart
• Does Anyone Really See Me?
• Keeping Perspective
• Showers at the Natatorium
• Achieving Homelessness