I have a sweet journal book, titled, \u201cDo Something Beautiful Each Day.\u201d\u00a0 It gives an example of something you can do,\/think\/say\/pray that is beautiful in some way.<\/p>\n
I looked up today\u2019s option\u2026.<\/p>\n
<\/b>September 1st<\/sup>\u2026<\/b> Make eye contact with a homeless person or someone you don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Say, \u201chi, how are you?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cGreat timing,\u201d I thought.\u00a0 Today was the day our family serves a local homeless group.\u00a0 There are the regulars, the ones who we can (almost) always count on to show up, enjoy our lunch, and some even ask for prayer.\u00a0 We look forward to reconnecting and sharing each other\u2019s lives.\u00a0 There are also quite of few that we see once, or a few times a year at most.<\/p>\n Today, I decided, I was going to focus on looking into everyone\u2019s eyes.\u00a0 It is very easy for me to into \u201cMartha\u201d mode, and, organize, organize, organize, facilitate, facilitate, facilitate.\u00a0 Stopping and connecting on a personal level is more of a challenge, especially when there are things that need tending to.<\/p>\n The group was smaller than typical.\u00a0 Still, we got to see a few of our regulars.\u00a0 One such regular is Henry.\u00a0 It saddened me to see him ride up on his bike, with his face all torn up and bruised, and having a brace for his ribs and arm.\u00a0 A group of teens jumped and attacked him.\u00a0 Because the group was small, some of the adults who are there to serve were able to spend good one on one time with him.<\/p>\n When I looked into his eyes, I saw a deep sadness and pain, veiled behind stoicism.\u00a0 I let him know that what happened to him was not okay, and that I was sorry it happened to him.<\/p>\n Toward the end, when we were getting ready to break down our setup, one of my favorite regulars, Jackie, showed up.\u00a0 I gave her a big hug and focused on looking into her eyes.\u00a0 As she was updating me on what was going on back at their camp, I saw a peace, and inner contentment, even amidst hard circumstances.\u00a0 She said that the police have not been hassling them lately, so that has been good.\u00a0 She shared who had their tents and sleeping bags stolen (this always happens), and was in need of a can opener.\u00a0 She has beautiful smile, even though she only has a few teeth left.<\/p>\n I then spent the rest of the day focused on looking into my friend\u2019s eyes, my boy\u2019s eyes, my husband\u2019s eyes.\u00a0 I realized I don\u2019t do this nearly often enough.\u00a0 A simple connection. \u00a0\u00a0So simple, yet so fruitful. \u00a0Catching a glimpse of their soul, and letting them glimpse mine. \u00a0Revealing truth, love, intimacy, vulnerability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have a sweet journal book, titled, \u201cDo Something Beautiful Each Day.\u201d\u00a0 It gives an example of something you can do,\/think\/say\/pray that is beautiful in some way. I looked up today\u2019s option\u2026. September 1st\u2026 Make eye contact with a homeless person or someone you don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Say, \u201chi, how are you?\u201d \u201cGreat timing,\u201d I thought.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-788499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-reflections"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788499"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788501,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788499\/revisions\/788501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}