the line

This past Thursday at Central was extra busy. Weary from the heat, many people that are unsheltered showed up for support, care, respite, and rest. The shower line and the laundry line filled up early. By the time I arrived, the end of the line was in sight, but frustrations were running high, and I was in a full sweat trying to keep it moving along! Our guests that hadn’t been able to shower for more than a week were eager for their spot in the line to arrive.

After the last person had showered, and all the laundry dried, I stayed to help Ezra and Michael a bit with cleaning up. While changing the trash in the laundry room upstairs, I noticed a small plastic bag filled with cigarette butts that someone had carefully sealed and placed in the trash. That a person, without shelter, living precariously on the streets of our city, at the mercy of the physical and social environments would have such consideration for others, for the ecology of our coastal city, even in this small way, not to simply drop the butts on the ground, touched my heart deeply.

Our pastors are talking about Hope in our current sermon series. I left that day, even after the witness of so much “harsh and dreadful” suffering and decline, full of hope. That care for something larger than the individual self, even when vulnerable and living on the margins, survives. That the human spirit cannot be crushed so easily is all I need to keep moving forward.