"Closing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..."

Two days before my forty-first birthday, the page was turned on a major chapter in my life: Tent City of Lakewood, NJ, where I was a volunteer for eight months, was demolished and closed down by the Township. (tentcityvoices.blogspot.com)

I was never a resident of Tent City myself, but its closure had a major impact on me. I've never pitched a tent, slept outdoors, or been camping in my life, but throughout the process, I was grieving as if it was MY home that had been bulldozed. It's been said that "home is where the heart is," and words cannot express just how much I believe it.

What I experienced personally speaks volumes about the reality of homelessness. That home is so much more than just a roof over one's head. It's the sense of having a place to go to where you're accepted and loved for who you are, not judged...the feeling of safety and security amid storms (both the physical and proverbial types)...the people that surround you, who are present to you, and for whom you are present.

I came to that place in the woods one autumn day with a bag of apples, a case of water, and an open heart. Indeed, amid those makeshift shanties, in the spiritual sense, I myself found Home.

And the new journey begins, I will continue to do whatever it takes to build Home for those in need.