Time to Cowboy Up!!!

Stay Alive!

Everydayness is my problem. It’s easy to think about what you would do in wartime, or if a hurricane blows through, or if you spent a month in Paris, or if your guy wins the election, or if you won the lottery or bought that thing you really wanted. It’s a lot more difficult to figure out how you’re going to get through today without despair.

—Rod Dreher

 

At some point in the various journeys we embark on in our lives, we get to a part where we feel likegiving up. Sometimes we give up before we even start and other times we give up just before we are about to make that huge break-through that we have been putting so much effort in to achieve. I have been inspired by many of our residents who have faced incredibly difficult situations but refused to give up.

Perseverance is a decision that allows us to sludge through hell to reach heaven. We focus on the possibility and reality of something good to help us endure situations that try to crush us. Here is a list of reasons why you should never give up because this world is a better place with you in it.

1- As Long As You Are Alive Anything Is Possible

The only valid excuse you have to give up is if you are dead. As long as you are alive you have the choice to keep trying until you finally succeed. Every breath you take leads to a choice that leads to another day.
 

2- Be Realistic
The chance of mastering something the first time you do it is almost non-existent. Everything takes time to learn and you will make mistakes. Learn from them and don't get frustrated because should be measured in effort and not perfection.
 

3- Pheidippides: The Man Who Created The Marathon

Very long ago an Athenian herald was sent to Sparta to get help when the Persians landed in Greece. It was said that he ran 240km in 2 days and after that he ran 40km to announce the victory of the Greeks only to collapse and die on the spot from exhaustion. If you ever feel like things are difficult, imagine what it would be like to run 240km in 2 days. But don't try this because you might die from it and that defeats the whole purpose.
 

4- You Are Strong

You are stronger than you think. One little setback is not enough to stop you from achieving your goals. Neither are 10 or 100 or 1000 setbacks. When is the last time someone believed in you? It doesn't matter as long as you believe.
 

5- Prove Your

You don’t want to be known as someone that is weak and gives up. Go out there and prove yourself to the world and to yourself. You can and will achieve what you set out to do. The only time you fail is when you give up.
 

6- Believe In Your Dreams

Don’t sell yourself short. In life there are going to be many people who will try to bring you down and tell you what you want to achieve is not possible. Don’t let anyone destroy your dreams.
 

7- Your Family and Friends.

Let the people you love and who mean the world to you be your inspiration to persist and persevere. Maybe you need to try a different angle, study more or practice more but don’t give up!
 

8- There Are People Worse-Off

Right now there are many people who are in a worse situation and environment than you are right now. Don't forget to be grateful, even in the midst of chaos and discouragement.
 

9- Improve Our World

When you achieve whatever you set out to achieve you can use your success to make a difference to the world or other peoples lives.

10- Inspire Others

Be an inspiration to others by refusing to give up. Who knows what someone else can achieve because you never gave up and in turn inspired them not to give up self.

Never Lose Hope

There is a dangerous stigma that goes with being poor in America, and with this stigma

lies a terrible reality.

 

Embarrassment, failure, lazy, and criminal are just some of the negative stereotypes that are heaped upon those living close to, or below, the poverty line. The mental stress of living in poverty can be crippling and even lead some people to make irrational and drastic decisions they never would have considered under different circumstances.

 

Suicide is a real problem that effects the homeless community every year. The fact is that America is full of good people who need immediate help. People are dying every day and the numbers continue to increase. Many people have given up hope. Thousands need serious help just to survive. As unemployment numbers rise so do the depression and suicide rates. Many people do not see a solution or a way out.  Some will turn to substance abuse, crime and/or take their own lives.

 

It happened during the Great Depression and it will continue to happen as long as people are doomed to live without having their basic needs met. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, a person's fundamental needs are violated when food, shelter, sleep, warmth and protection from the elements are withheld. Those who are not fortunate enough to have a roof over their head find themselves without security, order, law or stability. When our base needs are unmet, it is impossible to live a tolerable life for very long.

 

People who have families and friends who are able to help them are among the blessed. Many people are grateful when offered to sleep on a loved one’s floor if it means survival. For those who do not have kin folk or friends who will extend an invitation to occupy their floor the options are simply to survive on the streets or to shorten the pain sentence and kill themselves.Many good people take their lives due to the fear of being homeless. Many have asked for help and have been mocked and rejected so they no longer ask for help in fear of being shunned and made fun of. It is embarrassing and humiliating to ask for help so if someone asks you for something in private please be sympathetic and know that they are coming to you as a last resort.

 

 Desperation is not a subject for juicy gossip. It is about life and death.Mental health issues play a vital role. If a person is unable to afford treatment or medical care, there is an increased risk of suicide. Among the homeless, people with mood disorders are at a particularly high risk of suicide. Studies indicate that more than 90 percent of suicide victims have a diagnosable psychiatric illness.


Both major depression and bipolar disorder account for 15 to 25 percent of all deaths by suicide in patients with severe mood disorders. And suicide is the most common cause of death for people with

schizophrenia. Depression rates amongst the homeless population are higher than amongst the general population. Suicide among homeless people, both adults and young people, is a known health problem, with 22-46 percent having attempted suicide and up to 61 percent having had suicidal thoughts. Early experiences of homelessness as well as extended experiences of homelessness (longer than 6 months) are associated with higher rates of suicide and suicidal thoughts.

 

Poverty and homelessness are incredibly difficult to deal with and the cumulative effect of stress and despair can cause anyone to have suicidal thoughts. It is truly heartbreaking when a person decides death is a better alternative than their current situation. Please talk to someone if you find yourself experiencing feelings that you find overwhelming to deal with.

Why We Hope

"There are three that remain: faith, hope and love…"

-Paul of Tarsus, first century.

 

It’s funny how we have eliminated the middleman.

 

Faith is the bedrock of our human experience; it is the starting point from which every person who has ever lived has constricted a system or code to govern behavior, morality, and ethics. This concept has been expounded on, preached about and philosophized over by countless people. Faith allows us to hold on and maintain perspective in the midst of the most hostile of environments imaginable. Steps are taken and solutions are pursued in the fragile grasp of faith. It is the mortal enemy of fear.

 

Love might be the most written about and discussed topic in the history of the universe. Everyone has a concept or definition of what it means to love or be loved. This ambiguous idea sets hearts ablaze, inspires bravery and heroics, and breaks even the hardest hearts. We argue about it and sing to it and want to feel it and share it. I don't need to elaborate on love because everyone else already has. Even the most polarized groups can agree that love is vital to our existence. And as great as faith and love are, something else is on this list: hope.

 

But what about hope; what about the middleman?

 

I’m not offering an exegetical or hermeneutic exposition on what hope is and what it means. I’m not really qualified to do that, and many smarter people would probably disagree with me. All I can do istell you what hope means to me. As a notorious questioner, I often find myself looking around this planet and am heartbroken by the depletion of hope. People give up on life every day; hope is smothered by a bleak reality.

 

So, how do I find hope in this world? What is hope, anyway? I don’t think it’s letting society or others off the hook for all the things I don’t understand. And I refuse to believe it entails sticking my head in the sand while catastrophe seemingly runs amuck, unfettered by the cosmos. I think hope is staring into the face of dismal uncertainty or unthinkable tragedy while realizing we are not alone. There is comfort and solace in community. The metaphorical movement of people who want to bring change is not as symbolic as we think. We are a living, breathing organism that sustains one another in dire times.

 

Hope is that sometimes-irrational feeling that life will get better. We can look around and see that even though progress and technology has given us improved ways to create calamity, the root of evil has been around a long time. People have always committed  questionable acts, and by our thinking, people also dole out unquestionable grace. It is easy to point a finger at society and rail against the injustice we sometimes see. But will we also take those same fingers and put them to good use in order to inspire hope in others.

 

Its up to us and I hope we understand.

A Pass on Compassion

Recently, I was talking to some high school students about the difference between compassion and victimization. The discussion centered around the idea of helping others unless the very help we provide does more damage than good. It was argued that compassion must view the person being helped in a way that doesn't patronize or attach that person to an identity of being nothing more than a victim. Compassion, the students advocated, must produce an environment conducive to improvement.

 

Webster’s dictionary defines compassion as: Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it; pity. I believe this is a very good explanation of the kind of compassion many of us were raised with. As you can see, compassion is an emotion, or a feeling in motion. It must be active and used as a tool. If this happens, it can be used to produce solutions. Compassion is nothing less than a catalyst for improvement and just a passive observation.

 

I found it interesting that Webster’s uses the term pity when defining compassion. But what is pity? Webster’s defines it as: a feeling of sorrow that inclines one to help or to show mercy. Mercy is often used as motive for rescuing another from pain. And we have been taught that mercy is good. Yet, often pity and mercy are seen as terms that define someone as a victim instead of ideas that champion liberation. They castigate and label but rarely advance or expedite. We need to move beyond the passive embracement of these ideas.

 

Pity is an active form of judgment with the suffering of another being judged as bad. No wonder we dislike being pitied. We usually don’t wish to relieve others of feeling something wonderful. We hope to relieve others of things that are harmful or damaging. Sorrow and suffering are painful and therefore when we take pity on another’s experience we are saying that what they are experiencing is not good.

 

So with this in mind, would it make sense that compassion as defined by Webster is a tool of judgment? I don't think we consciously look at people in need of compassion in a way that relegates them to secondhand citizenship. At least I hope not. We actively express compassion by taking steps to alleviate conditions that cause suffering. It is a process and not just a head nod.

 

To be compassionate we must suspend all judgment of the actions of those we help. Compassion is not demonstrated with conditions. We shouldn't help others with expectations attached. We do the right thing because it IS the right thing. Period. We need to depart from compassion as a judgement and move towards compassion as a responsibility. But this is a terrifying idea because it places the onus on those who are being compassionate to do more than judge or assess the situation- it requires active solutions. It demands a radical approach to looking out for one another. It asks us to be uncomfortable until others can be comfortable, too.

 

Who knew compassion could be so revolutionary?