Boats

For the past week a woman with three young children has been coming into the cafe.
The youngest is seven months, the next is 3 yrs and then 6 yrs. The children are beautiful.
They are being raised by a rare tribe; the homeless. It's not unusual for one of the children to walk up to a rough looking man and crawl into his lap or eat someone else's snack.
Everyone sleeps together outside on a covered porch so the children are pretty familiar with
their surroundings and the people at the cafe.
It makes me smile to see a three year old little boy walk up to a dirty tattooed old man and crawl right up into his lap. Who can resist little boy giggles and hugs?
Having the children at the cafe brings a different side of life to us. Most of the people have lost their children to the state or have given up their parental rights because of addictions or poor choices. They love having the kids around, it's good for them.
I'm not sure how good it is for the kids.
Today I got inspired to colour with the babies so we found some markers and set out to
drawing boats. The three year old little boy looked at me with his big brown eyes and said "One day I gunna have a boat". Then he put a blue marker in his mouth and sucked the ink out of it, leaving him with a blue teeth to accompany his adorable smile.
I hope he does have a boat one day, but what are the odds of that?
I struggle between wanting to keep families together and wanting a safe, stable environment for children.
One thing is for certain, in the homeless community when the focus is taken off the drama at hand ( and there is TONS!) and affection and love and attention is placed on something else, the community is changed.
We all need something to live for. We all need something to belong to, a war to fight and people to love.
You cannot live life well if you have nothing to live for.
I hope the people in this community can find something to live for.