Thanksgiving is almost here and the past several days online has had a common theme for me. Everywhere I turned, the subject matter of homelessness. It started when I shared a great article called “Famous People Who Have Been Homeless”. It was an inspirational piece because it showed how anybody, even powerful rich famous people can wind up destitute and on the streets. It also showed how they managed to get back on their feet and achieve greatness.
Well, the response to the share was great. A friend LilPecan and I had the following conversation about it:
LilPecan eventually reposted her homeless post along with new comments in an excellent piece called “Does My Homelessnes Bother You?”
Days later I shared this message and YouTube video about the 11 year old boy that died, Brenden Foster. His dying wish was to help the homeless and that wish came true as a bunch of people made sure of it.
Then another friend, @JillFoster posted this video on Utterli about Homelessness and a personal story.
That brings us to today as I think about Thanksgiving and how grateful I am about all the blessings in my life. My professional and personal life has been amazingly blissful. Still, my heart aches whenever I learn about the Brenden Fosters of the world and realize that despite all of the technological breakthroughs we’ve experience we still have not figured out a way to stamp out homelessness. Given the current state of the economy and escalating unemployment, increasing numbers of US—not THEM—will become homeless. The old adage is true, “There but for the grace of God go I”.
Please be thankful for all the blessings in your life. Also, try to help any of our fallen brothers and sisters as much as possible. Anything we do for one, benefits us all. Being home for the holidays means so much more to me now because I’m thankful to have a place called home. Too many of us don’t.
Happy Thanksgiving, friends. Here’s Josh Groban and “Thankful” followed by the beautiful lyrics
THANKFUL
Somedays We Forget
To Look Around Us
Somedays We Can’t See
The Joy That Surrounds Us
So Caught Up Inside Ourselves
We Take When We Should Give.
So For Tonight We Pray For
What We Know Can Be.
And On This Day We Hope For
What We Still Can’t See.
It’s Up To Us To Be The Change
And Even Though We All Can Still Do More
There’s So Much To Be Thankful For.
Look Beyond Ourselves
There’s So Much Sorrow
It’s Way Too Late To Say
I’ll Cry Tomorrow
Each Of Us Must Find Our Truth
It’s So Long Overdue
So For Tonight We Pray For
What We Know Can Be
And Every Day We Hope For
What We Still Can’t See
It’s Up To Us To Be The Change
And Even Though We All Can Still Do More
There’s So Much To Be Thankful For.
Even With Our Differences
There Is A Place We’re All Connected
Each Of Us Can Find Each Other’s Light
So For Tonight We Pray For
What We Know Can Be
And On This Day We Hope For
What We Still Can’t See
It’s Up To Us To Be The Change
And Even Though This World Needs So Much More
There’s So Much To Be Thankful For