How does your day normally end? Calm, quiet evening in your living room? Maybe reading a book for awhile in your bed? Grabing a favorite snack out of the kitchen while enjoying an activity? Perhaps catching a late night show before lights out? When you live in a tent (or under a bridge, in a box or an alley stairwell) there are just some things you don’t do at night. Here’s my short list: watch TV, surf the net, talk on the phone, raid the fridge, change your clothes, soak in a relaxing tub, lounge on a comfortable couch, look at the clock, entertain company or adjust the thermostat. Perhaps you can think of others.
Life at home is centered around many patterns and rhythms that become deeply engrained in our emotional and mental psychie. There are many things we have come to take for granted that aren’t a part of the homeless experience; essentially, we call that the life of options. Sometimes it’s the case that what we DIDN’T DO becomes more descriptive of our lives than what we have done or will do any given day.
Last night, as I lay in my tent home, I nestled into my reduced reality. No wandering and walking throughout this “house.” “Confined to recline” is another way to put it! How many of us know what it’s like for our heads and our feet to simultaneously push against the walls of our homes as we sleep? Surrounded by cool, damp air, we “live” in our dark bedroom – somewhat dank (it has been four days now!) and cluttered (turns out the floor is our closet, drawers and counter space all wrapped into one). For most of us, we see the evenings as a time for RELAXING. For others (who are surviving), their evenings are for REGROUPING. What are our options? what is our strategy tonight? What a discouraging way to end your day. What was your “DIDN’T” from last night?
“He didn’t give us any food, and we didn’t take anything for ourselves!” (2 Samuel 19:42b CEV)