I look with purpose toward the second half of my life.  I am moving forward.

Charles Angrand, Mother and Child, French

I love kids.  They possess everything that is stripped away by age.  As I get older, I rather feel a spent bloom and then as sure as I smell coffee, I perk up.  Those roasted beans are buried dreams, brown fertilizer. I find myself spurred on to make solid decisions regarding my mission.

Granted, I have been at this precipice before gazing at the world atop the metaphoric mountain peak (a cloud of whipped cream on my coffee).  I have set multiple goals, become discouraged, encountered set-backs and even given up.  It has been 6 years of college with a gap of 2 years working with preschoolers. That particular job showed me how much I like teaching, but discovered how much more I love counseling and social work.  I enjoy forming relationships with the disadvantaged and particularly homeless youth.

I tutor with School on Wheels and the impact those children leave with me is beyond compare.  When they smile, I swoon, and when they cry, I am right beside them.  I am a part of their invisible community and feel familiar with their wanting to speak.  As I speak for them I speak for me, albeit on different planes of experience.

Recently, awareness of the number of people in Indianapolis who cannot read, through IndyReads, brought a new endeavor. Eventually I want to incorporate all three of my loves into one.  Homelessness, reading and writing, to reach the creative soul we each embody.  We need a purpose in life.

To be continued…