favorite things

It's a bummer how everyone I meet at work hates the city. They hate how there is nothing to do for fun, nowhere for homeless people to hang out but the public library (and even that isn't always open), how the resources for the homeless and impoverished are inadequate and the nice donations they see come in aren't seen again but go home with staff members, how there are no jobs and no helpful politicians and too much crime and on and on. They can't believe I would choose to be here- anyone with the means to move out seems to be doing so. I admire Joan and David, a couple who are two of our support people here, because all of their family and friends live in the suburbs but they make the choice to live within the city and work at its nonprofits. The tourism posters say this is the "Rising Star of New England," and I had a nice first impression of it, but the more people I meet who are sad and lonely and hopeless, addicted to drugs and/or fresh out of prison with no friends of family for support, the more down I feel about it sometimes.

So it's important to make the extra effort to focus on the good things. Yesterday, at the Labor Day bbq, a man who last week was lamenting his unemployment and homelessness told me that he ran into an old friend who is also dealing with a drug problem but lives in an apartment his mother's paying for, and his friend invited him to move in so they could get back on their feet together. He had the biggest smile and was so relieved- he said he'd been praying and praying for something, and miraculously this opportunity fell in his lap. These kinds of stories might be rare but there's so much hope in them and it made me so happy to hear. Other good things are the rare vegetarian treats at the soup kitchen (today they were homemade biscuits and banana bread), Jimmy the cook's juices (he mixes random ones together- like blue kool-aid, cranberry juice, and iced tea- and they are so good), blueberry lemonade from JoJo's coffeehouse, realizing I don't need more than my small stipend to live and be happy (Paul just calculated that that's $5,000 a year), parents visiting, having the chance to hang out with Rachel when we're both at work and walking together in the mornings, and helping people with little things at work, like looking up phone numbers and filling out transportation forms so they can get buses back to their families and get help with getting their lives on track.