Depression, job loss, addiction, abuse – physical and emotional, veterans of war, the death of a spouse or a child, physical or emotional handicaps, mental illness….

These are some of the reasons people can end up homeless. I’m sure I haven’t named all
the possible reasons.

When the breadwinner of a household dies, what is a family to do – especially if they
weren’t that financially well off, to begin with? How do you support an entire household when
you are grief-stricken from loss and you’ve lost your supporting income?

Hospitalization without health insurance or limited insurance and unable to return to
work.

Did you know there is such a thing as Financial Abuse? According to the U. S.
Department of Health and Human Services, financial abuse is typically interwoven with physical
and/or emotional abuse. This form of abuse occurs when one intimate partner has control over
the other partner’s access to economic resources, which diminishes the victim’s capacity to
support themselves and forces them to depend on the perpetrator financially. (womenshealth.gov,
2023)

Sadly, many Veterans return from their service with PTSD or addictions, or other health
problems often compounded by a lack of family or social support networks. Military training
and occupations are not always transferable to the civilian workforce, placing some Veterans at a
disadvantage when seeking employment.

These are just a few very good scenarios that can lead a life or an entire family down a
spiraling path to homelessness. No one envisions homelessness in the future. We all imagine a
life well lived – the happily ever after. Sometimes it’s due to poor choices and other times it’s
due to a terrible twist of fate.

We lay our heads down at night to leave the day’s problems behind and re-visit them in
the morning after a full night’s sleep. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes hearing about the
misfortune of others to fine-tune and freshen our perspective.

Where does one even begin to turn life back around again? How does it happen? At that
point, so much requires addressing that even considering it simply beats one down even more
with overwhelm.

These circumstances can, many times, bring about shame and prevent a person from
seeking or accepting help from loved ones. Unfortunately, people sometimes make their
circumstances worse by pushing their support system away due to shame, or many don’t even
have loved ones or a support system to turn to.

Thankfully, there are resources that will feed, clothe, and provide shelter for the
homeless. Above and beyond these essentials, there are organizations that also work with
individuals and families to rehabilitate them back into society. We are all human. We’ve all
made poor choices or experienced a terrible twist of fate. It’s good to know that second chances
at life are available to those that are ready for it and willing to take the steps needed to get back
on track.

References
Financial abuse. Financial abuse | Office on Women’s Health. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12,
2023, from
https://www.womenshealth.gov/relationships-and-safety/other-types/financial-abuse

I’ve always known of the City Mission of Buffalo as a place the homeless can go for
meals. That is how it started – as a soup kitchen. However, due to all the economic hardships
over the years, providing only food and shelter to people in hardship is simply not enough.

Today, the City Mission of Buffalo offers long-term recovery programs, counseling,
work, and life skills training education assistance, and health care services for homeless men,
women, and families committed to turning their lives around. The City Mission of Buffalo offers
outreach programs to prevent homelessness for individuals and families in the low-income
community.

I am grateful to know that we have such a comprehensive outreach program within the
Buffalo community. On any one night, 2,500 – 4,000 people are homeless in the City of Buffalo.
These can go as high as 7,500 people. These figures don’t even include the suburban
communities. Buffalo ranks as approximately the 70th largest city in the United States. That is
eye-opening when you think about how many homeless people are in this country.

There is a very sad stigma attached to homelessness. Society tends to look down on the
homeless as if they are bad people. In the last three years, we’ve lived through a pandemic and
are hovering over a possible recession. People lost their jobs and suffered from depression,
divorce, abuse, addiction, and mental illness.

No child says “I want to be homeless when I grow up”. Life can change on a dime for
any of us. How is it that we, as human beings, can be so judgmental? We all know some level of
dysfunction in our own lives or somewhere down the line in our own families.

A Necessary Evolution is presenting this information on the ANE website to educate
readers, and encourage empathy, compassion, and positive change within the Buffalo community
and the world. All positive change must begin within each of us. As we understand the causes
and needs of others and we choose to step up and help, we grow as compassionate individuals
and collectively as compassionate communities. This is how we change the world for the better.

Won’t you consider joining me to support the City Mission of Buffalo? If you can make
a donation, please click on the donation tab at the top of the ANE website.

Thank you for your support and for taking steps to make a difference for positive change
in the world and in your own life as well.

References
Home – Buffalo City Mission – helping the homeless in Western New York. Buffalo City
Mission. (2023, February 17). Retrieved March 12, 2023, from
https://www.buffalocitymission.org/

According to the book, Life Lessons, there are two root emotions in this world that
everything else stems from – Love and Fear. All positive emotions stem from a place of Love,
and all negative feelings stem from a place of fear.

Kübler-Ross, 2014

Ultimately, if you really stop to think about it, every problem that exists in the entire
world is due to fear. Hatred, insecurity, jealousy, prejudice – they are all fear-based. Most often,
fear is driven by ignorance. Ignorance is a lack of knowing or understanding. It does NOT mean
that a person is stupid or incapable. People don’t know what they don’t know until they are
open-minded enough to be made aware – to learn beyond what they know to be true with their
present beliefs.

Globally, fear causes wars. It can cause murder – the killing of innocent lives. Ultimately, war occurs because one party believes that its way of living and its belief system is
superior to another belief system. The need for power is rooted in fear and insecurity.

How far are we, as global human beings, going to take this? Don’t you think there could
be something to learn from those who are different from we are? Besides, who told us our way
is the only right way? There are many roads that lead to the same destination. All people have
something to offer to bring goodness into the world.

This brings us back to opening our minds to forgiveness of ourselves and forgiveness of
others. Fear eats us alive and collectively it’s eating our world alive.

Until we are willing to open our minds to understanding each other’s differences so we
can learn from them instead of building up a wall to keep anyone and anything different from us
out of our lives, we will continue on this same fear-based wheel going around and round with the
same problems in our personal lives as well as globally.

We must open our hearts and our minds and forgive ourselves for our own ignorance.
That’s the beginning of a new life and collectively a new world. Step out of your comfort zone
of fear, forgive yourself, and forgive others by also recognizing that their wrongdoings, too, have
come from a place of ignorance and fear. Take a chance – a risk – to learn something new,
something different about another way of life. If we would all be willing to do this, this is where
positive world change will take place. And the root of everything positive is Love. What a
beautiful aspiration.

References

Kübler-Ross Elisabeth, & Kessler, D. (2014). Life lessons: Two experts on death & dying
teach us about the mysteries of life & living. Scribner.

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Action Against Hunger was formed in 1979 and serves over 50 countries around the world. They operate with more than 6,000 volunteers and have headquarters in New York, USA; Toronto, Canada; London, UK; Paris, France; and Madrid, Spain.

Its four main areas of work include nutrition, food security, water and sanitation, and advocacy.

Hunger is a worldwide problem that takes all of us within our world-TOGETHER-to fight for solutions. If you or your loved ones don’t suffer from hunger, you are among the most fortunate. Isn’t it the responsibility of those of us who are fortunate and filled with health and nourishment to help those that suffer?

Please take this moment to consider joining me to take Action Against Hunger and step up to help our world neighbors and quite possibly our local neighbors as well.
As we do our part to help others, we grow as individuals and enrich our own quality of life.

Have you ever felt “off track” because you’ve been so busy, and you haven’t had a chance to eat all day? Not eating can make us feel irritable. It can also cause us to feel negative physical symptoms such as an upset stomach or a headache.

Imagine not having a choice to have food. There simply is none. There is no lunch date with a friend, no weekly planning of meals and weekly trips to the grocery store to stock up your fridge and pantry. No home cooked meal to sit down to with family. The priorities of life have drastically changed from enjoying food as a form of entertainment in our lives to where or when our next meal will come from. And when that meal does arrive, what will it consist of? Could it be from a dumpster? Maybe it’s a can of cat food. Maybe it’s only a slice of bread. Suddenly, life’s priorities are shifted, and nothing else matters. Eating has nothing to do with entertainment and socializing. Eating is only a matter of life and death.

Hunger is a worldwide problem. I’d bet we’d all be shocked to learn that there are people living right around us that suffer from hunger to some degree. Almost 800 million people in this world do not have enough food to live a healthy life. That’s about 1 in 9 people on this earth!!! Poor nutrition causes 45% of deaths in children under five years of age. What’s even more sad is that one third of the food in this world is wasted by those who are privileged enough to have it.

It’s easy to say that people create their own problems by the poor choices they make. If they’d be smarter about their choices, maybe they wouldn’t be in a situation to be hungry. Innocent children are born into hunger without choice. The breadwinner of a family could suddenly die creating an unfortunate financial circumstance for an entire family. You could lose your job due to cutbacks at work. Never count yourself out. Anything is possible. A devastating illness in a family can cause financial impact. We must be careful before we judge.

This is our world, and we are responsible for the condition it is in. If we continue to only be concerned with ourselves, what will happen if we are ever in need some day? Wouldn’t we hope that those in a more fortunate position would somehow help us?

Let’s try to be more conscious of our good fortune. Let’s give where giving is needed. Let’s not waste our food frivolously. Let us consider giving to our local food pantries; maybe add one more item per week to your grocery cart to donate to those in need. We tend to be more generous in these aspects around the holidays, but people suffer from hunger, and fret over where their next meal will come from every day of the year. Let us ask ourselves what we can do to help create a positive change. If we all step up to help, then we can change the world. It starts with us. We all have gifts within us to create goodness in this world. Let’s do our part.

Problems don’t discriminate. Insecurities don’t discriminate. We are ALL flawed.

Many famous and highly accomplished people have insecurities, addictions, mental illness, and various other circumstances that they struggle with just like you and me. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You have beautiful qualities, and that is what you have to embrace about yourself. We are all flawed, and what best helps when dealing with the flaws is a sense of humor. Our flaws make us unique. They do not make us failures.

Trust me, I have countless quirks, but no one can laugh at me as much as I can. I do things on a daily basis that I catch myself and say that I should not be behaving that way. I am human. What is important is that I acknowledge it. I am aware. The greater we make our awareness, the less and less we will behave in a way that is undesirable.

It is not a sign of weakness or failure to admit to yourself or someone else that you were wrong about something or behaved poorly. It is not a sign of weakness to apologize for a wrong doing. It is very courageous, very honorable, and it shows great compassion toward whomever you have wronged. You will free yourself when you express an admission or apology to someone else. They will also feel valued by you for your act of apology. Please also remember that YOU count in the act of an apology. Sometimes we even wrong ourselves. Sometimes we owe ourselves an apology for the way we have mistreated ourselves. Wrong doings can be projected onto someone else, or we can place them on ourselves.

It’s important to realize that life comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, cultures, and so on. The point is that we all have value. We ALL matter. We are all here for a reason. We have something to contribute.

Be a good person, realize your flaws. Realize your blunders. Learn from them, and keep moving forward to be the best YOU that you can be.

This month’s challenge: Swallow your pride, and say your sorry whether it is to yourself for treating yourself badly or to someone else for mistreating them. Own your actions.
It’s normal to feel small for having to apologize. That is the point. When we do something we know was wrong, then we are ashamed. It’s like a biological punishment to ourselves when we feel shame. We know we are wrong about something, and therefore, we carry shame inside for it. Own your actions by apologizing, and release the shame. You will feel so much better about yourself for having done so.

I invite you to post your experiences or thoughts about this challenge. Possibly you can help to encourage someone else, or someone else may have some encouraging words for you.

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There are struggles and hardships all around us – many we may not even be aware of.  Thankfully, there are causes and organizations that we can support that can offer assistance with life’s struggles.

Please join A Necessary Evolution to learn about various causes and organizations and create awareness.

You are invited to offer your thoughts on the causes and organizations that we explore together. You are also invited to suggest other causes and organizations to learn about through future ANE articles.

A Necessary Evolution believes the world was created for everyone everywhere.

ANE believes in compassion for all of creation. Through awareness, we can share our compassion and make a difference in the world.

Please join ANE to learn about various topics of world concern. Together we can make a change for the better.

You are invited to share your thoughts about topics of discussion. You are also invited to make suggestions for future topics of world concern to explore together.