Peace, Love & Hygiene: Vol.90- Tonight was extra fun. This week I came out with Cecelia Stema (aka Cecilia who is Cool, in my contacts list) We laughed a lot. We played a bunch. We hugged people relentlessly. It was a night I will most definitely never forget.
The first person we helped was a homeless lady walking down the sidewalk. Her clothes were dirty, and she was indeed very hungry. Mama Kayla’s stone soup is made so good you can taste the love. With the sack lunch Karen helped prepare, homemade cookies from Mrs. Julie, and a candy treat from Katie; I knew we were going to really show people what random acts of Love look like. We give, not just out of obligation to our species survival, but also out of unconditional love.
Everyone doesn’t have the same position in the circle. If that were true, Elton would have sung about the spot of life. Instead, he sang about the circle of life. Every point combined creates the circle. I think it’s near when we connect to the other spots along the edge. You never know who may meet. You might not always know who you might be important to. Which leads us to our second spot.
Stan was driving the Stanbulance again! We were driving around in circles through an impoverished neighborhood. At a side street intersection, Stan stopped to talk to a small herd of young children, ranging from ages nine to twelve. He pointed to the Magdalene’s Mission van. They approached us slowly with secret smiles lit up behind their big eyes.
Cecelia and I jumped out and offered a healthy lunch to about seven children. I knew that if they lived in that neighborhood, a healthy meal would help. A couple of adults approached us humbly, so we offered them healthy meals that they were genuinely grateful for as well.
Before we closed, another man walked towards the van. I could see he was hoping we would offer him some food as well. He was very grateful as he blessed us and wished us safety.
He kept repeating, “Don’t let anyone take you out of your element. You hear me? Don’t you ever let anyone take you out of your element.”
“I am in my element.” I replied matter-of-factly.
We explored an abandoned elementary school. I took pictures of all the graffiti on the walls. We climbed and explored every floor. There were still names written on slender lockers, and laminated pictures of penguins on the grey shattered floor.
Stanley spotted a blue tarp on the ground. We both pulled over. Cecelia and I collected food and a Mag Bag for him. He had the warmest smile.
After driving around for a while, we went inside an abandoned building to see if we could find some people that were seen there earlier that day. We went through every floor. I saw moss growing beside the tiles. We speculated and imagined different uses for the open spaces. Some, but not all the stairs had decayed away. It was so… empty. Even though there was graffiti art and marks of life everywhere, it felt like a lifeless tomb.
We went to a place where we know a lot of people are hiding out. I saw my Girl Who Reads. She told me that she was someplace looking for her belongings that had been stolen from her earlier that day. In an abandoned house, she found the original copy of the book I wrote and had given her.
Cecelia, Big Hands and I talked ‘80’s movies for a while on the sidewalk. I underestimated his breakdancing skills that exist in the days of yore. We saw a lot of my favorite people in that area.
We drove with keen awareness down the boulevard. We met a man in a wheelchair who was panhandling at an intersection. Kyle, our housing specialist, was on hand to connect with him and begin the process of permanent housing.
We were out of sack lunches, but we had some soup and hygiene to offer. We found a few more homeless people who were grateful for our help and then we called it a night.
I had so much fun this evening! We explored. We had adventures. We had tacos. We saw friends. We made friends. We made children through seniors smile. We were blessed by many. We blessed many people along our endeavors.
Because that’s how we do it in Detroit.
Amen.
#peaceloveandhygiene #magdalenesmission
p.s. it’s after 3 a.m.. good night. excuse my typos. I’ll edit inthe morning
