After spending a weekend in Toronto recently it was brought home to me more than ever just how many homeless people there are. As I was happily driving along in a taxi on my way to an event I noticed so many “bodies” laying on the pavement covered in old blankets, sleeping bags and cardboard. These people were not in a corner tucked away from the people walking along the street, they were bang in the middle of the sidewalk with no protection from the harsh winter weather.
I am an observer of people, I learn so much from watching others. So I start to think to myself, why do these people lie in such an obvious place? And also how did they come to be in such dire straits in the first place? It upset me thinking about these homeless people and I talked about my experience with members of my family when I arrived home after my weekend away.
One member of my family, who is quite young, suggested that by laying in such an obvious place on the sidewalk more people might be tempted to give the homeless person money. Someone else thought that maybe they just did not care where they lay down as they were so tired and depressed with the life they had they just wanted to sleep anywhere. Whatever the reason for these people being homeless, laying in the middle of the sidewalk and, sometimes being a nuisance and begging for money, will not help their situation. Thank goodness for the organizations out there and individuals who do go out of their way to help these people; saying that I do hope that these people try and help themselves too and are not living this way of life because they think it is “cool having no responsibilities and being free from everyday workday stresses etc.”
I am not here to judge, as I said earlier I observe people when I have time on my hands and it leads me to a thought process. This experience also reminds me what a wonderful life I have and how lucky I am to have stability and a loving family to look out for me. Saying that my life has not been easy, in fact I will be honest and say it has been a constant struggle and it is only in later years I have felt less stressed and face less challenges. I am responsible for my life being the way it is now, even though there are people in my life who look out for me and care about me, only I could make my life what it is today, if I had no interest in bettering my life no amount of help could change it.
