Hope in hoplesness

...as I travel my usual bus route back to downtown I look out  the window and notice something slightly different in the normally unchanged scenery. There is an apartment building, a run-down poverty crying two story unmaintained building It's gray stucco is has layers of city grime, and the blinds inside are yellowed with uncaredfor age and always pulled tightly shut. This afternoon though, there is a difference. In one of the upper apartment windows, the blind is pulled wide open and, spread out on the windowsill, are little pretty objects of decoration. In a building that has always screamed hopelessness, there is now a soft blossom of hope.


-have a cup of optimisim-

And on the grateful side of life...

...when I was getting off the bus yesterday, after obsessing for two hours about what would be the best supplies for the series of art I'm creating for a gift shop, I noticed an elderly man trying valiantly, but without success to get out of his seat. Finally a gentleman stepped up and helped the man to his feet who then hobbled his way off the bus, smiling in gratitude for the whole time.

Watching the  man made me  think of simple things taken for granted, like having two strong legs that can carry me easily wherever  I want to go, whether I'm car dodging as I Jaywalk across a busy road, or if, instead, I'm going for a long run down a quiet woodland trail. I  never think about these moments, never give the easy use of my legs a second thought. I just assume they will always be there, ready to quickly move me to whenever I need go.

It's just one of those everyday life things that is so easily taken for granted...