Elisha

[rustedtight]

Elisha

You all have seen her. Standing on the street corner. Holding a sign. The signs may all be different but they all say the same thing. Homeless. Hungry. Please Help. She stands there day after day in the freezing cold living her life by the changing of the traffic signals and the people that pass through what by all means is her intersection. The problem is, most of us never see her.

I saw her. Today.

I was hungry, which is nothing new. I am always hungry. I have choices though, I have options. So as a person that has options, I exercised them. Burger King. Normal. Nothing new. On my way downtown headed towards her intersection. Driving along singing to myself (it's the only time that I sound good) munching on some fries and something turns my head, a girl, on the corner. "What is she doing there?" "She's got a sign." Heartbreak......she can't be more then 16. I drive through her intersection to the next light, and break the law. Illegal u-turn....small in the grand scheme of things I think. I pull up to her light and roll down my window, the reality of the cold strikes me hard.

"Here." I say, and hand her my food. "It's not much, it's what I have."

"Thanks" she says, her chilled face warming.

Horns honk and the light is green. I go. Another u-turn, this one legal. I drive through her intersection and look to see her sitting on the ground, eating like it's the last supper, like she hasn't eaten in days. More heartbreak, and then.......anger. The eternal question.....why? Why is SHE there? What has she done at that age to be standing on that corner, having to beg to eat? Why aren't I out there? Surely I have done worse things in life then this girl...so young, so innocent.

I'm mad. How does this happen? How can we do this? Our children are on the streets begging for food? Does this bother anyone else? We want so much and we have more then we can ever use. Some of us have nothing. Not even food.

Excuses are easy. "they did something to put themselves there" "I can't spare anything" "What can I do" "It's just a traffic light"

Most of you never see her.

Here's what you don't know.

Her name is Elisha, she's 15. She's diabetic. Her dad died 3 months ago, and her grandparents sold the house and didn't want her. She can't find her mom. She has a aunt in Louisiana. All her worldly possessions were stolen (common among homeless people). She has the clothes on her back and her sign. Her sign which cries out, a cry which most of us never hear.

I talked to Elisha today, asked her what I could do. She didn't know. She cried, I cried. No one had ever reached out to her. It was too much. I went to lunch, not out of necessity but because I didn't know what else to do and needed to be alone. I sat down to eat and it started to snow. Hard. Elisha. Standing on the corner. With her sign. This is ridiculous. I paid and left. I am not going to let her stand out there in the snow, in the cold. I raced to her corner....it's empty. Where is she? Is she warm? I hope she's ok. lord hear my prayer......

"Lord God, be with Elisha, feed her, clothe her, she is one of your children. Look out for her and bless her life like you have each one of ours. Protect her from the weather and give her a warm place to stay. Put someone in her life to bring her joy. Bless her lord, for from you all good things come. Open our eyes lord, let us see her and reach out."

I drove away empty. Wishing that I could have done more. Something to else to help. Angry at the world for letting a young girl stand out there all alone.

Pray for her. Pray for all of us.

The next time you see her, reach out. You never know the joy that you can bring until you do.

Adam Swansen

[sciencefeeling]

Well Rusted, I am sure you did what you could do, but as you see, that was not much. Although I am catholic, I don't think praying is going to help her out of wherever she is. No, she didn't do a thing to be where she is, here I would know where to send her if I ever encountered her. Wherever you are, there was not a place you could send her?, there are not social institutions to take care of her, or give her some direction?.
Here is different, here being poor is not a crime, and is not a contagious illness.
Last weekend I was walking on a famous commercial street and there was a homeless guy with a dog and an elegant lady, their dogs starting playing together and she stopped for him to get the dog (his was not tied), they had a normal comversation about how dogs follow each other. She didnt give him money (most charities advice you not to, cause there are lots of places they can go for food if they want, the money, they don't normally use it for food, unfortunatelly lots of the homeless people have addicitions, not all of them, an addiction is an illness and public health here takes care of those), but she talked normally to her.
I got surprised, really surprised about it, and then i got surprised at being so surprised...why did I think it was not right?, why did I passed far from him?, I wouldnt have done that normally. Cultures are different and I could see why I like mine...
NG

[shearheaven]

I feel a little different about this story. I feel that people are placed in our lifes for a purpose. Weather it is a homeless girl on the corner or a neighbor that is struggling to take care of her family and to proud to ask for help, or eldery person needing help at the market. Sometimes it is out of our "comfort" zone to open our arms and do something about it. But once you make that U turn...once you take that pot of soup down to your neighbor, once you help that elderly person find what they need at the market. You will not ever know what kind of joy it can bring to your life.

Prayer?...Oh my yesssss...I believe prayer is the divine intervention that surpasses anything we can do in our little lifes. And for those who have childern you know what I'm talking about. I or my childern, wouldn't have made it this far...20 years of helplessness, worry, not being able to fix the problem...omg yes...I have leaned, relied, counted on divine intervention....And yes they have been answered. Sometimes over long periods of time, sometimes not. Still it gave me comfort in moments, days, weeks, months of otherwise a gut wrenching ache of feeling helpless.