This morning, as I sometimes do, I joined our Outreach team on their biweekly early morning outreach. Early morning outreach is an opportunity for the team to collaborate with other local agencies serving the homeless and try to contact people in the community who may not regularly access services anywhere. We provide coffee, doughnuts, sack lunches, water, and other supplies. We gather by 8:00 am and spend about an hour and a half greeting people.
Today was notably beautiful. Sunny, clear sky with a slight breeze out of the west. Just warm enough that you know it's going to be hot later on. Many people wanted water for later. Some were inclined to stop and visit for a while and some wanted to get their coffee and bolt. I try to do coffee and doughnut service so that my Outreach coworkers can get the information they need without trying to juggle clipboards and coffee cups. As an added bonus it gives my awkward self something to do and say which is welcome. A smile, a cup of coffee, and a "have a nice day," is doable.
Of the many encounters this morning, two stand out to me.
The first was a woman who came and got a doughnut and coffee and then seemed to be waiting for someone. This was confirmed as some time later a man in a nicer pickup pulled up and she got into the truck with two other men. We all watched as this woman got into this truck, into this unsafe situation, and knew there was nothing we could do in those circumstances other than what we had already done for her, which was offer kindness along with her coffee and doughnut.
The second was a woman who came up, got her coffee and other stuff, and then I lost track of her, until 15 minutes or so later when she was walking across the far side of the parking lot, having clearly just left the semi-truck parked there and its occupant. The realization of what sort of activity was taking place hit me like a slap.
I'm here, enjoying this beautiful morning, in the relative safety and comfort of my coworkers and colleagues company, and here are these two women having completely different mornings. Did they stop to notice the sun, the breeze, the warmth in the air? Can they stop to notice? What a luxury it is to stop and smell the proverbial roses. Two women this morning placed themselves in remarkable danger, in situations most of us would never even begin to contemplate, just to make it through today. This beautiful day that I don't think they even noticed.
Regardless of your thoughts about their choices, understand that for women the streets are unsafe in a way they aren't for men. Understand that they make incredibly difficult and painful choices, often to trade in the only commodity they have for a chance at food, at shelter, and yes, maybe drugs too. For one second try to imagine that level of desperation. Sometimes I lose sight of what the daily experience for our clients can be like, and today was a sharp reminder.
Remember this, too. For most of us, hope is reflexive. We have learned, through experience, that life is not always unkind and that bad situations often have happy endings. We have learned that on the other side of pain is healing, and so we hope. For many of the people we serve here, hope is a luxury as much as noticing a beautiful day is. Hope is what you get when you aren't focused every second on simply surviving to the next second.
So then, our job becomes to cultivate hope in our clients. We do that in a multitude of ways, but some of the simplest are offering a cup of coffee with a smile, offering service without judgment, offering kindness without strings. My hope is that those things together perhaps remind someone who may feel hopeless, bereft of their humanity, that they are indeed a loved and valued person, at least in this moment. Small kindnesses given in love may be all someone needs to lift their head once more in hope. What a beautiful morning indeed to remind me of the power that I have to instill hope in others.
