Becoming a Better Person (in the midst of craziness!)

The last few days have been a whirlwind of phone calls, appointments and errands and crossing this and that of of an ever growing list. The relocation process of our family from one state to another has hit high gear and we are in constant motion trying to make it all occur smoothly. I feel good about most things, especially how incredibly fortunate we are to have our house have sold in just four weeks on the market! Before getting into our next house however, it looks like we will have to spend some time in transition in an apartment in SC. We have a few houses in mind to buy, but I can't see that it will happen in the timing in which we need to go directly from one house to another.

In the midst of the craziness, I have been trying my best to eat, sleep and be a patient (single) mom (Pete is out of town again for two weeks). I have done my best to stay current with the ever stunning ups and downs on wall street and decision making in Congress- which just for the record, I am in full agreement of their rejection of the $700 billion (fat cat) bailout...I truly believe that there are a tremendous amount of incredibly intelligent people in Washington, most of whom we, the people of this country, placed in their positions. They must be able to come up with an alternative solution that will help jump start our economy without having to keep the pockets of wealthy wall street tycoons stuffed. Okay, I had my say about that! I'll keep moving in my original direction...

While waiting to see the doctor at one of the appointments I had earlier this week, I noticed Juliana (yes, I had to bring both kids with me, ugh!) needed a new diaper (in a bad way). So, we grabbed all of our belongings, and hand in hand, all three of us headed back out to the car so as not to make those in the waiting area suffer through what I knew would be pretty ugly. I opened up the hatch door of the back of the Pilot and loaded everyone and everything inside. As I struggled to remove the pants of an incredibly squirmy baby, I noticed a man walk by. Although he kept heading in the direction away from me, he walked slow and caught my attention. I then returned my focus to the diaper situation in front of me. A moment later however, there he was again, standing at my side, asking if he could bother me for a minute. As he began talking, I struggled to hear him as I tried to keep Nate from swinging from the side of the car and Juliana from kicking the wipes out of my hand.

"Excuse me," I asked him.
"Can I bother you for a minute?" he asked again.
"What is it sir?" I responded.
He studdered and had paused a moment before what appeared to be a huge effort to express his collected thoughts.
"I'm temporarily homeless and I wonder if you can spare any money to help me out," he asked while looking at the ground.
He wore jeans, clean white sneakers, a polo shirt and a baseball cap. His hair was short and he was shaven. He didn't look as though he'd just lost a $200,000 house, but he certainly didn't appear to have been homeless for very long.
"I'm sorry," I said shaking my head, "my family is on a pretty tight budget right now, I wish I could help you, but...."
He began walking away, very fast this time, and while I got back to giving my baby a clean diaper and restraining my toddler from jumping into the parking lot, I couldn't help but regret my decision to not help this man. I'm not a big fan of just handing out cash to the homeless, but something seemed different about this guy.

It seemed so hard for him to approach me and I could see the humiliation in his eyes at having to ask a stranger for financial help. Despite the fact that, yes, we really are on a budget right now, most families are now a days, but I know I had spare change in the car and at least a dollar bill in my purse somewhere. I could have spared that at least to help make his situation a little less uncomfortable. Since then, he has entered my thoughts many times this week and I have decided that community involvement needs to be a priority once again in my family's lives when we get to SC. I saw a quote the other day that read, "To better the world, improve yourself."

Simple as that.