Someone asked me recently why it was I didn’t seem to get too flustered, upset or angry by ‘things’. Things being the inequities in the world, the suffering of others, the crisis that happen every day when working in the poverty/homeless sector.

See, I’m back in the sector that inspired the start of this blog. Not working for a front line agency this time, but for the Calgary Homeless Foundation. And I love it.

I’m on a three-day a week contract with the Foundation, and my heart isn’t heavy. It’s happy.

Go figure.

I missed the work. Which sounds somewhat bizarre — how can I miss working with those who have nothing?

Mostly, as I told the person who asked the question, because I don’t see ‘the nothing’. I see the amazing power of the human spirit, its will to survive, to wake up every morning and take a step and another, and another, no matter what.

We are born to live.

And in this sector, you see it everyday. No matter the circumstances of their lives, people will do whatever it takes to live.

It’s inspiring.

My work with CHF is primarily around community engagement. Connecting emergency responders, community associations, and agencies contracted by the Foundation to facilitate good relationship.

It’s work I love. It’s work I believe is vital in our quest to ‘end homelessness’, to change the direction of people streaming to the streets back home, to affect change in policy and discourse around this ‘thing’ few understand but have many opinions about why it should be kept in someone else’s neighbourhood.

Calgary has a 10 year plan to end homelessness. And yes, the ideal of ‘no more people being homeless on our streets’ is lofty. And yes, the likelihood of it happening is slim. In fact, since the first days of the plan where the vision painted was our streets free of those who had no place to call home, the goal has shifted to recognize that while we can’t prevent everyone from falling on the streets, we can ensure they don’t stay there too long. We can ensure we have the facilities and the resources to provide them a path back home — quickly — before the inequities and despair of being homeless settle into someone’s soul and tear away all hope of ever finding their way back home.

Because that’s the thing about homelessness. Just as the police can’t stop every crime from happening, before it happens, or accidents on our roadways from occurring, before they occur, they can put safeguards in to help prevent crime and accidents. And, should something go wrong, they can get to the scene quickly and ensure life flows onwards again without too much mayhem or angst ensuing from the events that occurred.

In homelessness, we can put safeguards in to plug people into the right resources and opportunities to prevent homelessness, but we can’t always stop their fall. And yet, should they fall, we need to get them out of shelters as quickly as we can.

Shelter life is hard. It’s not about ‘the shelter’. It’s about the life. it’s about the tearing away of your sense of worth, value, pride. It’s about losing your autonomy, independence, personal space.

Living in a community of impoverished people, no matter how nice the shelter is, drains you of your sense of understanding of who you are. We all want to believe we’re doing our best, and if our best has lead us to a shelter door, than really, what else can we do?

And so, we give up hope to find our balance in the crazy-upside down world called ‘homelessness’.

I’m back working in the sector I love. I am grateful.

Grateful there are so many people in this city committed to making a difference to ensure every Calgarian has the opportunity to plug into the resources they need, no matter where they’re at, to find their direction home.

I am grateful.

As I told the person who asked me why I didn’t seem to get upset,I like to focus on creating more of what I want in my life, more of what I want to see in the world. I want to live in a world of compassion and kindness. Getting upset by what is prevents me from seeing what can be when I let go of my judgements around why it is the way it is and breathe into the possibilities of what can be.

I believe miracles happen, everywhere, everyday. To create lasting change in the world, I must begin with with me, with changing my attitude, my judgements, criticisms and beliefs around what is ‘impossible’ to the limitless possibilities of what can be in this world when I become the change I want to see in the world.

Namaste.