The Street Pantry

The Street Pantry...

Life offers up many lessons. Most of which are not

ones we would choose to learn, if given the choice.

Life throws many cruel bends along with some

uplifiting moments, though, the former has

predominated my entire life.

Being forced to live the greater portion of

my life on the streets has not

only offered up too many lessons to count,

these lessons have been shoved hard down

my throat for 2 decades.

But street life has taught me how to

improvise and improve, re-using and re-cycling

my way through life every moment of the day.

Some of the lessons learned were the results of

just doing.... like teaching myself how to cook

without a kitchen, how to make great coffee without a

coffee maker or pot. How to sleep or rest, lightly,

no matter where I am. I have learned how to stay warm on

the coldest nights. I have learned there is free phone service

that allows you to talk, text and receive voice mails by using wi-fi.

I have learned to find pockets, nooks and crannies

of Nature that are the best spots for quiet, solitude

and for just BEING.

I have learned the fine art of disappearing in plain sight and

becoming part of the landscape itself.

I have learned that people only value those who have homes,

while discarding those of us without one, regardless

of the reasons.

I have learned to stop reaching out to connect with others.

I have learned people show their true colors to those

without the luxury of a home, colors that I wish I never saw

or had to expereince. I have learned that friendship that had

been present before you were on the streets are no longer there

once you are, they tell you they want nothing to do with you.

Yeah, that is really a true friend, there!!

I have learned that people will and do make immediate snap

judgements about another person's circumstance based

solely on their opinion, not on fact. Making

erroneous assumptions of your habits, of who you are

as a person, how you came to be where you are, and so forth

just because you do not have that luxury of a safe, solid

roof over your head come nightfall.

I have learned a million things and more living on

the streets. Things that can never and will never be

taught in schools. I have never really“learned” anything

in school, other than going to class after class that served

absolutely no purpose in the reality of LIFE.

And nothing prepares you for life on the streets.

Even living on the streets itself...and being fully immersed in it.

School never taught LIFE Skills.

No skills that actually

MATTER.

And nothing useful, just damaging labels for not conforming

to their way, to their thinking and Really nothing

learned in school can be applied to real life, in any regard.

School was just a jail sentence that all

kids were forced to endure for at least a dozen

years. Imprisioned for no other reason than

the age we were.

But the Life SKILLS that street life teaches you are not

ones you can list on a resume, though immeasurable, because

all employers want to see are what you did in School and

what GRADES you received.

But they do not want to know anything else.

School and grades tell abosutely NOTHING about the person,

what their skills are or what they can contribute.

But still, kids are forced to go to school.

What is the point in school, when it serves no useful purpose?

Just required to serve your sentence. School does

nothing to prepare you for Life, in any regard. And they

teach more about Flowers and Trees, than they do

about personal biology.

Getting sucked into the Vortex of Street life...

(becomes) a No man's land while becoming

every man's and woman's Domain. Reaching the

Dead End of Life and the Black Hole of Society...

Social Interaction, (Living) a life of meaning and

purpose all but obliterated.

Learing to Re-Use and Re-Purpose your life everyday,

every moment. Remembering to B R E A T H E and

keep moving forward or life ceases to be.