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Homeless

When home is lost, much is lost. There is much more lost than just the outside structure of the home. Many feelings that are within the homeless person usually involves the interior structural makeup of that person which could include such things as feelings of insecurity, concerns for safety, the need to belong and be accepted. The desire to be treated by others in society as an equal, to be respected and included. We(the homeless) are treated unjustly and cruel by other members of society for many reasons, one reason being less than (others). Some people feel that is acceptable.

We (the homeless) are anyone within the realm of society that happen to fall beyond that invisible, fine line that circumstances have caused us to pass over. Once there it becomes a war that we struggle to fight and to win and for some it is temporary but for others it is ongoing and almost impossible to win, so we just give up. Because sometimes the battle is long and hard and it weakens us to the point where giving up is sometimes easier than trying. So some of us win and others do not.

Homeless is a label that is used to try and define to others that it usually involves a person that has no place to live, which is true in some way. But to get the true definition of the word would be greater understood if it had been truly lived by someone who has endured that lifestyle.

Yes, I am homeless. What exactly does that mean? It means that I am still the same person that I was before becoming homeless. I have the same hopes and dreams and desires as anyone else. I am not less, I am equal. Even though my spirit has been injured, it has not died, it still remains.

Just because I do not have a structural home to live in doesn’t give others the right to judge me. Only God can judge me. This life and place in which I live now is only temporary, it is a stepping stone that I must go through until God fulfills his promise to take me to my real home where my struggles will be over and finally the battle will be won.

~Charlene Swain Matts

February 22, 2016/by FreshView

The Writing Group: Foreword

The people who contributed to this collection of pictures, poetry and prose range roughly in age from thirty to eighty. Some live or have lived in the Tedford Shelter or in their cars or in tents in the woods; some live in subsidized housing. Some are unemployed; some live on disability checks; some have part time or seasonal jobs; others are retired.

What we all have in common is The Gathering Place at 5 Tenney Way, Brunswick, which is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. for coffee, snacks, companionship, cards, puzzles and on Thursday afternoons for writing.

Over the past four years, I’ve hosted anywhere from one to a dozen writers who have shared stories, laughed (a lot), and cried (a little). I usually throw out a general topic—the first, as I recall, was “Scars,” and the latest, as I write this, was “Doors I have Walked Through--- although people can (and do) write about anything that is on their minds. Some of the topics I’ve given will be self-evident as you read; other topics won’t matter: what’s important is the response. Some of the pieces have been edited from grammar and spelling, but we’ve tried to maintain the original voice and content.

When we first began writing four years ago, some people thought we were having an English class, so they moved as far away from our table as they could; when we began sharing what we’d written, however, they can back, at first to listen, and then over the next few weeks, to join us.

Why? For many of us, writing is a way to make sense of the world, especially when our minds are looping around a particular problem. What I’ve also learned is that all of us need to be heard—listened to, respected—especially if we’ve fallen on hard times and feel that no one care anymore.

What else have I learned over the past four years? Probably the most important thing is that despite common stereotypes, homelessness and poverty have many faces, many voices and that both homelessness and poverty go far beyond not having a physical place to live or a specific job to get to. “Homeless” might mean losing a job that has given you an identity for twenty years, losing a spouse, a child or a friend, losing your health. “Poverty” may mean any number of spiritual or emotional deprivations.

Someone once said that going into The Gathering Place, he couldn’t tell who was a volunteer and who was a client. Four years of writing and listening to stories have shown me that’s because there really isn’t that much of a difference between any of us.

--Rick Wile
Writing Group
The Gathering Place