Dreams

Have you ever one of those moments when you stopped what you were doing, looked around at your environment, sighed a deep breath, and realized life did not turn out the way you thought it would?

Reflection allows us to pause and take inventory of our life. Some of us had very definite and specific plans for the future. We cultivated childhood dreams and hung posters on our walls of people we looked up to and careers we hoped to emulate. Playing cops and robbers was more than a summer activity with friends from the neighborhood; we wanted to be that police officer. We weren't sure how those dreams would be achieved, but we were certain we could figure it out.

Others of us had no clue what we wanted to do with our lives and posters of Sally Ride and Michael Jordan (sorry LeBron, you weren't born yet) shared wall space with Lamborghinis and Black Beauty. When people would ask us what we wanted to be when we 'grew up,' we'd shrug and be as noncommittal as every other 10-year old on the the block. There was a vague idea floating rattling around our brain but our main concern for July afternoons revolved around catching the ice cream truck before it made it to the next street.

Fast forward ten or twenty or even thirty years later. What happened... How did life turn out?

Life throws us curveballs and often that direct line between point A and point B ends up taking detours and sidetracks. What we intended ends up being unrecognizable from what we end up doing. Life changes and those childhood hopes and plans evolve into scenarios we never imagined. Sometimes its a positive change and our situation becomes better than we ever imagined and other times we feel like our life deteriorated into a trapped existence.

I don't know too many people who are living out there childhood dreams. It's not that those dreams were unrealistic or unattainable, but rather, as we journey through life, we adapt and grow in ways we don't always anticipate. Things we enjoy as a kid pass away and new desires replace them. Our interests change. We develop new talents. We discover other avenues of thought which change or alter our beliefs. This is not a bad thing or a negative commentary on unrealistic youthful ideas. It is simply a fact of life that we change.

But there are other circumstances that can misdirect point A from point B. These are situations out of our control and most of our residents are at a place in their life they never imagined because of these types of factors. We have chronicled the issues leading to homelessness numerous times (so I'll spare you the repeated information), but the point to remember is that none of our residents planned on being homeless. And we deal with many homeless (or at-risk of being homeless) children throughout the year.

One of the primary reasons we work with the homeless is to ensure that every child we have the honor of helping is able to rediscover what it means to have a dream. Just because a kid is living in a shelter or assisted housing, does not mean they need to abandon their goals for the future. Just because life is currently not how they imagined does not mean they must give up on what they want to do.

Every time you support Samaritan House, you are enabling us to help children who have refused to stop dreaming. Thank you so much for your help and assistance. One day a poster of one of our children might just hang on the bedroom wall of one of your children.