Thoughts on Blessings

Waiting on groceries! Thank God so many stores around this nation have finally started acknowledging the struggle of those without transportation! With the busses running again, I could do my own shopping, of course, but in the monstrous heat wave we're experiencing, waiting for the bus at either end of an elongated trip to get a couple groceries that might go bad by the time I finally get them home--doesn't sound like fun:( I'm more than happy to wait at my home for groceries to be delivered from one of the bigger stores. Today I also discovered that my walker (and presumably those of everyone who uses one) puts me at a prime level to get grit and dust from the street blown up into my eyes. Oh the life of a permanent pedestrian! And the only way to avoid the inconvenience would be to give up and be a shut-in. No thank you! I'll take the good with the bad. I praise God that I'm not living on the street, like so many people around my building. They seem to come out of nowhere, and yet they are everywhere. I'm so sad imagining their lives. So many of them use walkers (actually that's a new problem I've faced; people assuming I'm homeless just because I AM disabled; they'll actually ask). Where do they store it? They can't sleep on it. As they are walking around the streets all day, just trying to fill up the day before finding somewhere to sleep, how do they beat the heat? I've met and spoken to a resident of the shelter near me a number of times, and he's always in a good mood. Always happy to see me. Sometimes offering a cursory hug. When I first met him he had a job. What happened? Who's going to take care of these homeless people? The friend I've made is lucky; no physical problems at all that I can see. And at least he has SOMEWHERE to go. What about those who don't? I'm getting groceries delivered because I can't bear to face this heat and fierce sunlight. What if I had no choice? How would I get food? What do these poor, "ragged people" (borrowed from Paul Simon) do? We might get rain tonight, and for that at least I'm grateful. That just might go a little ways toward cooling things down. But again I wonder, what do people do to keep their walker from getting wet? If there's rain, I won't risk even a small chance of my walker rusting. What if I had no choice? These are some things I'll be pondering as I cook and eat some of the wonderful groceries I am so blessed to have, and have delivered! People used to say (circa 1900s) "the poor are always with us." In my generation I'll offer a revision: "the less blessed are always with us". We owe it to everyone who struggles to keep them in our thoughts, and in our hearts, as we enjoy what we can afford.