If you don’t understand … Spend a day in the shoes of a homeless person … well maybe not 😂

anyway it’s a hard knock life for people on the streets … always at the mercy of others and limits set with time and availability … Hurry up and wait … Time you’ll never get back … A nervous system that can never truly rest ⚡ I’m thankful I have a chance to breath and regroup

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Looking back … time you never get back

Added in October 2026, reflecting on what I meant when I wrote this in August.

The hard part wasn’t only being without a home. It was how little control I had over my own time.

When I was at Torres, I was inside from roughly 6 p.m. until 5 a.m. the next morning. Then the day started again … and I had to work around the hours, rules, and availability of different services.

Even after I moved into temporary accommodations, there were still curfews and schedules to work around.

When I wrote “Hurry up and wait,” that was what I was talking about. It can take an amazing amount of time just to get through another day when so much of your life is being scheduled by someone else.

And that’s time you could be using to look for work, figure out housing, help your community, or just rest.

The wear and tear isn’t always obvious to somebody watching from the outside. You can be exhausted without having done anything they would recognize as a full day’s work.

I was grateful for the chance to regroup. But I wanted people to understand that having a place in a program isn’t the same thing as having control over your life.

Sometimes the assistance comes with its own costs … and one of those costs is time.

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My homelessness journey … chapter 8 of 17

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