Being homeless an opportunity? Are you serious?

Being homeless is a huge opportunity for me.

Look beyond the horrific losses I have sustained.

Look beyond the severe physical threat that is constant in homelessness.

Look beyond the denigration, degradation, and social stigma evident in the eyes and bodily postures of regular people on the street; of my comrades-in-arms on the streets; of myriad people (yes, often even those positioned to assist--not all, but many) in the cities and community.

Look beyond ... or, rather ... look within.

Look within.

Of all the possibilities presented to me during this adventure of homelessness, the opportunity to be self-aware has never been more prevalent in my life.

Being the *good child* that I strove to be all my life, I tried to fit my round pegs into the square holes.

• "Work hard."
• "Finish all the work that is expected of you before you go out to play."
• "If you are sick, ignore it--get in there and get your work done."
• "Work is not meant to be fun, it's something you have to do to survive."
• "Just do it and quit whining about it."

• "That's just your imagination, it's not real."
• "Quit daydreaming and get something real done."
• "Stop lollygagging, you're wasting time."
• "Don't just sit there do something."
• "Quit being so rambunctious, just shut up and sit down."
• "Stop being so strange, don't be different--no one will respect you."

I would never have had the courage to walk away from the 40 to 105 hour work weeks I've put in the way I have been.

A good girl works hard and ignores her body, mind, and spirit. She will be rewarded later.

Bulltwinkies.

When I was young -- even before the current trend of working 80+ hour weeks was the norm for mere survival -- I worked 103 hours a week.

Did you do the math?

Did the question of, "Hey! How can you physically work 2 2/3 full-time jobs at once?" surface?

The answer is I couldn't. I only kept it up for about 6 weeks.

In today's vernacular, "Epic Fail"

I had a waitress job from 10pm to 6am. I was a cashier at a parking lot from 6:am to 2:pm and I can't remember what the third part-time position was.

That time is a blur in my mind.

I had it set up so my days off on each full-time job were different. That meant one day I would either leave one job a tiny bit early or arrive at one job a bit late. It also afforded me 2 days when I had the luxury of sleeping 7 hours, the other days I slept 4 hours.

It was a whirlwind.

And there was no money to be saved. I was paying for the apartment my boyfriend and I were living in. I was paying for the food, gas (cooking and heating), the electricity, the water, the taxi and bus to get to job to job and back 'home'.

No, my boyfriend didn't work. I don't remember why.

I worked, ate, slept and did them all disturbed. It was not an affluent time ... I was constantly in fear of how I was going to pay the next bill.

That led to the second episode of street-living in my life. Because I couldn't get all the bills paid.

But, I kept going back and trying again.

In my lifetime I've been a food-service worker (numerous times) and clerical (from filing to executive assistant -- those are the jobs I taught myself typing for and then taught myself about computers and learned computers from others around me).

I've been a tow-truck driver and dispatcher -- in a time when there were very few females in the field.

I've been a tour-guide for a demonstration kids farm.

I've been a fund-raiser and development consultant.

I've organized events and have been a paid storyteller.

With all the paid gigs, I've also volunteered, in animal rescue; as a docent for nature education organizations; and as a face-painter and storyteller.

And through it all, I've continued to try and fit my round pegs into the square holes.

Without this homelessness and concommitant loss of everything I've ever owned, I would never have walked away from trying to fit.

I would have continued denying myself.

I am a dreamer. A creative. A researching wonder. A person who can see and feel energy in ways that are not acknowledged by the metaphysic commodity world view. An adventurer. An explorer. An asker of "why?".

I've called myself a misfit all my life.

Being homeless is a huge opportunity for me ...

I choose to advocate transformation from the metaphysic commodity world view to the metaphysic sacred life world view (yes, there will be a post defining these terms).

I'm not a misfit. I have a voice. I accept myself. I make a difference.

Here's to you ... and the opportunities you have.

What does your awareness mean?

What does your awareness mean?

To you?

To others?

To your community?

To your environment?

You may never have empirical knowledge of what it means.

You can, however, have an inner *knowing* which is equally, if not more valid.

What does just one action of yours accomplish?

Whether you see it or not, it has a ripple effect that touches more than one second of life on planet Earth.

One smile, one word, one gift, one action.

The ripple effect is astounding.

"I am creating this blog entry on the notes application of an iPod touch at 4:53am in the dark of a temporary homeless shelter."

One simple sentence, yet if you examine only a few layers of its meaning you'd have nothing less than a book from sheer volume of words.

You make a difference.

You may not believe it at this moment in time.  In fact, you may even be thinking "Phllbbfftt!  The action I'm taking is such a small thing it's not even worth acknowledging."

You would be wrong.

I'm not going to tell you *what* to act on.

I am going to tell you to trust yourself and to engage.

*Engage* is a buzzword today, so let me give you another phrase from one of my heroes, "Make it so."

Thank you Mark Horvath (aka:  @hardlynormal, invisiblepeople.tv, WeAreVisible.com) and the bevy of communicators with which you bowl.  This blog post is because of you, and your actions.

Everyone reading this ... what does *your* awareness mean?  It means the difference of a lifetime -- it's magic, never believe it's not so.

Are you ready to act -- Now?

One observer calls it draconian (Neil Donovan).

Another observer calls it 'rats in lab experiment'.  (Tina Moore)

A third observer at huffingtonpost.com wrote "New York Study Leaves 200 Struggling Families To Fend For Themselves As Experiment"

I've been able to read tweets from at least 4 of my cohorts who believe in, use and advocate the use of WeAreVisible.com.  Reprehensible was the mildest word amongst us.

If the perpetrators want factual data on a homebase model I can recommend they speak to people already using such models -- people such as Joel John Roberts and all the people at PATH, amongst others.

The last conversation I had on Twitter with folks I've met through WeAreVisible.com, was me asking "Is there something we can do?"

We weren't sure.  

Now, I pro-offer this and take action upon it myself.  It's true, I haven't yet successfully found a home for myself, and I've done all I can at this moment in time.  So for this moment in time, for follow up in future moments I'm planning this, as well -- after all, I'm not the only one in the homeless milieu:

1)  Each one of us who has a blog, please put your opinion and request for action from your readers and followers into a current blog post, prior to the upcoming WorldWide Homeless Day Events on 10/10/10.

1a) Please share the link to your blog post with all your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, digg, -- in short the entire social media milieu)

2) Please share the link to each of the three observational stories I mentioned at the start of this post, at least once today in your Twitterverse with a request to others to do the same, and use the #wearevisible tag in your tweet to join those of us taking action on this in one voice.

3) On 10/10/10 World Homeless Day especially, but any day this month, please post on all your social media your wish and intent to achieve change and make a difference in Homeless Issues.  If you have a Facebook Account, please like and post on the World Homeless Day FB page  (and visit their webpage: www.worldhomelessday.org)

4) Put your creativity caps on and come up with more ways we can act on this!

I have more to say on this issue and will be doing so in another post or three this weekend, and I will have researched more action steps you can take.

You are important.  What you do is important.

You can choose to take an action.

Will you do it now?