Togetherness

Together we can make a change.

Alone we're just one single candle in the wind.

When I was a little boy and my mother threw a birthday party for me and I got to invite some friends, that made me feel like I was more important than I really was. But for that wonderful day I felt important.

Today I don't celebrate birthdays, but someone invited me over to his house to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family.

Now I feel like I used to when I celebrated birthdays.

Jon Woodward, executive director of Seven Hills Shelter, commented that the difference between being homeless and having a stable existence was the loss of a support network.

A few years ago when I was struggling with my meaning in life, I went to Brahm's on Thanksgiving and a stranger gave me $20 to eat on.

Then, three years ago another man offered to make a reservation at a restaurant and gave me $20 to eat on.

Two years ago one of the ministers at the United Methodist Church in Bentonville invited me to his house for Thanksgiving dinner.

Last year I spent Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's incarcerated.

Now hopefully a support network is in place and stability will be my watchword.

We all need someone to lean on, or care about us, or share in celebrating holidays. That provides a support bonding of we are family.

I remember when our family traveled to Illinois to spend Thanksgiving with my mother's parents. My father read Abraham Lincoln's speech proclaiming Thanksgiving a national holiday.

Then we all were asked to say what we thankful for.

I don't remember what we all responded, but now I know what I'm thankful for...friendship amongst my fellow houseless and the bonds of new friends who've helped me overcome my former depression around the holidays.

I gave eulogies at both of my parents' funerals. I remember the Christmas after my mother's climbing the stairway to heaven.

My father was depressed and missed my mother. He ended up in the hospital and we never really celebrated Christmas.

He died a few months later and my sister theorized he died of a broken heart.

In fact one of the nurses in the ICU said she heard him talking to my mother.

He wanted to join her.

So, just by helping the lonely out of their aloneness can make a difference.

Togetherness bonds one with all.