A New Day

First I want to thank everyone who has shown me love, support, and encouragement, I cannot express to you what a difference you all have made in my life. I feel as though I have a group of people walking with me everywhere I go. When I start to get down on myself I am able to think of the words that were said, I am then able to focus a little better and go on. I have been able to smile today and I even took some pictures. I went to a place that is very close to home as I am still fearful a bit of being alone in the car, makes no sense I know but that is a hurdle I will overcome. I am slightly paranoid of running into my son when alone.

I was wandering around, speaking to a park maintenance fella, a very nice man I must add, we visited for a bit while I shot photos; then he found a discarded needle and began to talk of all the addicts that he picks up after in an attempt to protect the public. I was not, unfortunately, shocked, after all I have lived with this as a part of my home and work life for many years. I saw a compassion in him for these people he cleans up after that is not often there. He was not angry or resigned, I would have to say more like hopeful that the world would change someday and he would be out of a job. This is not an attitude I often encounter when it comes to the street people of our community. At this I was shocked.

Then as I climbed down a bunch of rocks that pretended to be a trail to the water in order to take some shots from a different  prospective, to be closer to the water. I saw that there was a man fishing but figured we would not disturb each other much. I was snapping away when my foot slipped, the resulting rock slide drew the attention of the man on the stump; he turned around and said "Hey, why aren't you working anymore?", he had been a customer of mine for years and years. I was very pleasantly surprised.

His name is Brandon, we talked a bit of small talk, then he announced that he had quit drinking a few months back and told me how much healthier and happier he was. His entire family are really good friends with beer, all of them, he proceeded to tell me some stories as to why he quit and what was going on in his life now. He asked me about my kids. well ya know I  tried to give him a short run down on the happenings, nothing serious just the quick news. He didn't by it at all, he asked after Kenny specifically; it all came pouring out of me like some kind of pressure cooker explosion. I must have talked for 20 min., when I was done, his response was  simple. He said, "you did right Jan," Then he put down his pole and climbed down off the stump and gave me a hug. He never said anything more about it, I took some more pictures and started to climb up out of the hole I was in, see, I came down the wrong way, figured I would go back the same way, not so easy. Brandon jumped over and gave me his hand to lean on and said it again.

It was a good place to go today.