Street Family

It Happens All the Time In Heaven

It happens all the time in heaven,
And some day
It will begin to happen
Again on earth--
That men and women who are married,
And men and men who are
Lovers,
And women and women
Who give each other
Light,
Often will get down on their knees
And while so tenderly
Holding their lover’s hand,
With tears in their eyes,
Will sincerely speak, saying
“My dear,
How can I be more loving to you;
How can I be more
Kind?”
--Hafiz

I spent Thanksgiving Eve with Art and Shasta and part of their street family.

When people have struggled with poverty and abuse, when they have found themselves unhoused, exposed, living in the street, needing everything, everything, having only their bodies and their will to live between them and nothingness...then often they form street families: the elders take care of the younger ones, and the young ones turn to each other for understanding, for comprehension.

As the elders begin to take control of their lives, they offer a hand up to those who are still struggling. Art and Shasta now have indoor housing. They work at jobs when they can find work, and they spend their lives offering support for sobriety, support for those who are still in the street. Art and Shasta, flawed human beings still learning, still making mistakes as we all do sometimes, having lived in the streets themselves for some years, know the ropes and can teach a thing or two. As Art and Shasta love each other, they provide a model to others, and sometimes those others, standing close to the source of so much love, fall in love themselves. The two young women here, embracing their mentors, have seen each other and have fallen in love.

We spent some hours downtown near the river, in places where they have slept in all weathers, where each of them has hit bottom, has tasted the sour metal of being alone. They asked me to take pictures of them in this moment of their gratitude, to mark with them the passing of a Thanksgiving Eve when each of them is not alone, when each has someone to love, when all four are so full of gratitude that there is no space for anything else. And I am right here with them, full. No space for anything but gratitude.

Art and Shasta and some of their friends have applied for grant funding to support more unhoused people, and while they wait for the grant funding to arrive, Art has his own fund-raising project going on. Art and Shasta are expecting their baby any day now (the due date has been mis-calculated quite a few times, but the baby now weighs six pounds and should be making an appearance very soon), and while they know that having a newborn will change how they offer service to their street family, they are also present for the unfolding mystery of how they will live as new parents. More pictures of our day together are here.