Dear Inner Circle,

A face that could melt any heart met me at Wayside this morning. I love this bloke. I could take him home. Many times over the years we’ve found accommodation for him but his mental health occasionally causes uproar that sees him on the streets again. The last time we met, he raved about the kindness of those who ran the aged care facility in which he was placed. Today’s news however is that he is sleeping at Central Station. An outburst last week caused staff to draw a line that excluded him. His outlook is positive already and we clinked our coffee cups to toast four years since he drank any alcohol. We clinked our cups again and toasted 11 years since he’s been to jail. We clinked our cups one more time when he said, in spite of this recent set back, he didn’t self-harm. His arms show evidence of many hundreds of scars and it’s clear today at least, that he’s not bashing himself up for his failures which is a wonderful and significant achievement. I’m cheering for him.

In the café this morning a young person looked across from the other side of the room in a way that made me think they were aching to say something. I acknowledged the face which responded with a beam. “I’m off to work,” the young woman said. “I didn’t know you had employment,” I said. It suddenly became rather obvious that she was wearing a Woolworths shirt with prominent logo. “I just started. Our Pathways Worker Mandy got the job for me.” I said, “I bet she lined up the right things and then you got the job for yourself”. “Yeah,” she said with a sudden look of shyness. She told me that it wasn’t just about money but that she felt like a productive member of the community because of her job. “Do you stack shelves?” I asked. “No,” she said, “I’m a product replenishment officer… so I suppose the answer is ‘yes’ but I like the way I say it better than the way you say it.” “Any way you say it,” I said, “I love it. Well done.”

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