Thanksgiving in perspective

I woke up this morning kinda grumbly at the thought that I'd volunteered on my day off, to deliver individual thanksgiving meals, when in all reality all I wanted to do was stay nestles in my warm bed and dreams. But I got up and trekked down to the community center loaded up a car and was on my way to give out these turkey and mashed potato containers. It wasn't until this elderly lady barely made it to her door to receive her meals that my heart started to thaw. She was so feeble and disheveled yet the look in her eyes, I could tell she had drive. She fumbled to reach for the two meals she had signed up for and thanked us with a thick almost German accent. After delivering our meals we went back to the center and this man came in asking for food. We had, at this time, already given out all our meals and only had one left. He looked at me while the others went to wrap up his meal and said he didn't know what he was going to do...he had six mouths to feed. While the others looked for the left overs he started sharing how his baby mama just left him and he didn't even know his kids name. He said he had just moved to Indiana after Katrina hit. That he had been on his roof during Katrina for seven days and had to pull this little girl from next door, that he had babysat, out of the water dead. He said he was still in counseling over that. And yet, after all this he goes on to say he goes to the local technical college and is studying to be a counselor . He said he has been through a lot but he wants to give back. After all he had been through...he too wanted to give back. And her I was grumbly in having to get up. A part of me hates those moments...where I'm slapped in the face and told to stop complaining and look at life, but another part is so thankful to be put in my place. I will never for get that man or his story. And this thanksgiving I'm thankful for him and his light.

No one should...

There are some things that are always in the back of your mind but never really come forward unless something happens. For example, I know I’m working in the inner-city. I things are not necessarily always safe. I know my kids are exposed to things that kids should not ever have to be exposed to. I know all of this, but it is rare that I sit and really think about. For one thing, it just wouldn’t get me anywhere; it’s a sad and harsh reality. But today was one of those days where it was brought forward. In one of my 7th grade classes today a boy decided it was ok to throw around some pretty vulgar and degrading words to another individual—words that for one thing, he should not know, and for another, cut rather deep for anyone. And he didn’t care how it made this young man feel. It amazes me because I know he probably heard some authority figure in his life say these things. I mean, how many kids are influenced and nurtured by what they hear at home…we all are. Ten minutes later I’m confiscating a safety pin from a girl who is cutting herself with it. Then I’m discussing how to better relieve the stresses of life, how to cope with a crappy home life to a 12-year-old girl who should be at worrying about nothing less that what she wants to do for fun with her friends after school. Scary stuff! On days like this it really makes me stop and wonder what life is like for them. I begin to wonder about the affects I, as well as programs I’m involved with, have on these kids. The world is sneaking in on them and it really breaks me apart to hear and see what they have to deal with. The things these kids are exposed to, no adult, let alone kid, should ever have to experience.