December
Scintilla
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2003
- Posts
- 12,424
One look, one sentence, phrase, action, deed. One paragraph, one speech, one idea, movie, book, person, place or thing. Sometimes one is all it takes.
Some of you know that I spent some time living on the streets in my younger years. One night, I was walking through Stanley park in Vancouver. I'd lost track of my sleep buddies ( street kids like to sleep in pairs or groups for safety) and they were somewhere else in the park. We'd all been drinking, smoked a few joints. I was by myself, walking along one of the paths in the park. There was some lighting but I was between lights, it was fairly dark on either sides of the pathway. I was mostly drunk, totally stoned, and bleeding because I'd tripped on a tree root and slammed my stupid drunken face into a mother of a tree. I was dirty, my clothing full of patches sewn in place with dental floss. I wore everything I owned in the pack on my back. I started thinking I was getting too old for this shit. I started thinking maybe I wanted out of that lifestyle. Maybe I wanted to start living instead of just surviving.
Just then I heard a crack to the side of the path, as I looked to my right a very tall homeless (?) man stepped out of the shadows and directly in front of me. He wore a long tattered coat, and layers of clothing. No back pack, no sleep gear. He leaned on a cane/walking stick. He was black and he had grey dreadlocks, a lot of missing teeth and he smelled terrible. I was scared of him. He looked me right in the eye, smirked a bit and said one sentence. "Little birds can't fly with broken wings." Then he crossed the path and disappeared into the trees/dark on the other side.
I took it as a sign. I felt like I was the little bird, and that my wings were broken. I felt with everything in me that it was some kind of amazing sign. I knew immediately that my time living on the streets was done. Somehow, in that moment after he walked away, everything changed. All it took was one sentence, from one man who appeared lost, but very well may have been more sure of where he was in life than anyone else I've ever met. The next day I bought clean clothes at the thrift store, pawned anything I could, collected debts, begged, borrowed and stole and came up with enough money to rent a room in a hotel for one month. During that month I got a job, enrolled in college, got off the streets, mentally said goodbye to the street kids I grew up with. At the end of that month I was really hungry but I'd saved all my earnings and had enough to pay the security deposit and first month's rent on my very first apartment. I never did sleep outside again after that night in the park.
Are there any "just one" moments in your life? Moments where just one thing changed everything for you in some way? I think we need to live for those moments more. I think those moments are really important to each of our life stories.
Some of you know that I spent some time living on the streets in my younger years. One night, I was walking through Stanley park in Vancouver. I'd lost track of my sleep buddies ( street kids like to sleep in pairs or groups for safety) and they were somewhere else in the park. We'd all been drinking, smoked a few joints. I was by myself, walking along one of the paths in the park. There was some lighting but I was between lights, it was fairly dark on either sides of the pathway. I was mostly drunk, totally stoned, and bleeding because I'd tripped on a tree root and slammed my stupid drunken face into a mother of a tree. I was dirty, my clothing full of patches sewn in place with dental floss. I wore everything I owned in the pack on my back. I started thinking I was getting too old for this shit. I started thinking maybe I wanted out of that lifestyle. Maybe I wanted to start living instead of just surviving.
Just then I heard a crack to the side of the path, as I looked to my right a very tall homeless (?) man stepped out of the shadows and directly in front of me. He wore a long tattered coat, and layers of clothing. No back pack, no sleep gear. He leaned on a cane/walking stick. He was black and he had grey dreadlocks, a lot of missing teeth and he smelled terrible. I was scared of him. He looked me right in the eye, smirked a bit and said one sentence. "Little birds can't fly with broken wings." Then he crossed the path and disappeared into the trees/dark on the other side.
I took it as a sign. I felt like I was the little bird, and that my wings were broken. I felt with everything in me that it was some kind of amazing sign. I knew immediately that my time living on the streets was done. Somehow, in that moment after he walked away, everything changed. All it took was one sentence, from one man who appeared lost, but very well may have been more sure of where he was in life than anyone else I've ever met. The next day I bought clean clothes at the thrift store, pawned anything I could, collected debts, begged, borrowed and stole and came up with enough money to rent a room in a hotel for one month. During that month I got a job, enrolled in college, got off the streets, mentally said goodbye to the street kids I grew up with. At the end of that month I was really hungry but I'd saved all my earnings and had enough to pay the security deposit and first month's rent on my very first apartment. I never did sleep outside again after that night in the park.
Are there any "just one" moments in your life? Moments where just one thing changed everything for you in some way? I think we need to live for those moments more. I think those moments are really important to each of our life stories.
