The Word from the Streets - December 11, 2002

We were so blessed with abundance today. First of all, our Jaya Devi joined us for street meals on this fine Wednesday afternoon. Secondly, the Tuesday evening lunch assemblers made about four hundred lunches. There was such excitement in all of us when we all peered into "Big Red" and saw the mountain of lunches loaded up. It's been our dream to go down town with more sandwiches. Lots of our guys were already gathered in the lot at Peachtree and Pine as we pulled in. The lunch line runs really smoothly since Mahadev started doing the numbering system. Something had to be tried. The number of men has increased greatly since the cold weather season has begun. I still have moments of sadness when I don't see our Daniel waiting there for us. I'm easily pulled back into the moment when I scan the group and spot some of our other wonderful friends.

Selina had made Todd a homemade Christmas card and was excited to give it to him. Todd was so thrilled when he received it. It's so beautiful to watch how he lights up when the children come with us. Since the children have been joining us, Todd has been at Peachtree and Pine every week. It gives him something to look forward to. Consistency is such an important thing. The guys know that we will be there every week with lunches, books, and kindness. Jaya Devi was telling us that when they started the Street Meals program, there were several people that wouldn't even talk. Homer is one of the examples of how consistency and kindness can really change things. Homer was one who never spoke. Now he is quite chatty and will agree to the occasional request for a hug. We reminded everyone that this coming up Saturday we would be giving out our holiday packs. We have so many sweatshirts and sweatpants that Alex got from Russell athletics. The Flying Biscuit restaurant has baked over four hundred cookies for us to put in the packs. Gina, one of the managers, told us that the crew had so much fun putting their love into the cookies for our guys.

It was cold and damp, so there were only a few guys at Renaissance Park. Homer had even come up to Peachtree and Pine. Central Park was busier than usual. I always want to get out and distribute lunches at this park. Connie is always there looking for me. I didn't recognize her at first today. She was so wrapped up with clothes and blankets. I heard "Hey Michele!" and I knew it was her. She told me that she'll remind Homer about the our holiday packs on Saturday. As we were heading to the cars, there were many waves," thank yous "and "God bless yous "sent from our friends.

We had nine big bags of lunches for our last stop at Woodruff Park. It was so nice to be able to bring so many lunches here to this park. There are so many of our regulars, our freinds,here. Time stands still here. Sometimes we could stay and visit for great lengths of time. Usually, I'm surprised that the lunches are all distributed and that it's time to go. I feel like,"Hey, I just got here!" I guess what the point here is, that there is such love here that I want to soak it up and savor it. There is such joy in reaching out to someone and realizing that they are reaching out to you! This is the juice of Seva. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Thank you my Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati
Deep in the grace of service,
Sadhu