Week 2 Do It Now Do It Now Do It Now …

DO IT NOW DO IT NOW DO IT NOW …. I sat in the train station with a little bag of fresh food to be my lunch on the train. A homeless man with teeth on the top of his mouth and none on the bottom sat dozing and making little comments in the row behind me. A real battle was raging in my heart between my desire to share my lovely food with him and the fact that I was nervous and even a little afraid. He looked dirty and scary and kind and welcoming. I struggled for several moments, finally picking up my food and walking back to His seat. Turns out that sharing breakfast in the train station with Ernest, a homeless poet, was the highlight of my day. I shared sweet, juicy strawberries and melon, pesto and salsa and crackers from my mom. Ernest shared his poetry and his stories, frequently ensuring my attention by asking, “Ya know what I mean?”

Growing up in Seattle, he had fruit trees in the yard and he cooked great-smelling food to share with neIghbors. Ernest has 11 sisters. The sister who “took him around” was the one he loved deeply. She didn’t tell him she had agent orange-induced cancer from a stint in Vietnam. She recently died. Ernest cried. The same matter of fact voice described time spent in prison and how various street drugs made him feel.

He proudly explained the meaning of his name: Ernest means honest, trustworthy and faithful.

The most impactful part of our moments together was watching and listening to how it felt for him to be ignored while requesting hospital treatment, after being attacked on the street. Being ignored was a story that went deep for me. How many people feel this reality? Requests, needs, thoughts and feelings that slide past deaf ears. Do our eyes focus forward, as we walk past lives that feel messy or different from our own?

Ernest didn’t ask me for anything. We shared breakfast and thoughts together in the train station. Because of his light, laughter and smile, I hopped on the train richer and fuller. To paraphrase Og Mandino, in Scroll 1 of Greatest Salesman, today there was beautiful, juicy fruit (emotional and physical) that Ernest and I could share.  Lesson learned: save myself some stress and DO IT NOW sooner … Ya know what I mean?