my mom picked me up from the airport but mentioned she hadn't eaten all day, so she stopped at a restaurant to grab something to go. in the parking lot was a homeless woman. at first, i thought she was cradling a baby, but it turned out to be a small puppy. she had 3 puppies and one kitten surrounding her.

my mom is very compassionate towards homeless people, always wanting to stop and give something. i am more discerning as i like to go get them food rather than money, but when i worked with that advocacy group for battered women, i learned that over 50% of women and children on the street are escaping abusive situations, so i usually try to give to women.

we went up to her and i asked her if we could get her some food. she said thank you, but she already had a salad. i asked her if she wanted anything else to eat. she said she can always use more.

i asked her what she would like, and she asked for fresh fruit. the store was across the street and my mom needed to get back to work, so i told her i would come back with it in a bit. my mom gave her a 20. she asked us to wait, then went back to her shopping cart, digging for something. she came back with a pristine gucci box. compared to everything about her that showed so much wear from the streets, this box was in such good condition, she could have very well been a gucci saleswoman bringing us an item to inspect. she opened it up and there were a handful of bracelets inside, set with small stones.

i wasn't sure if she was trying to sell me one, so i told her, no thank you.

but she insisted, and i realized, it was her way of saying thank you. this woman had so much dignity and pride. so i took a purple one, and it's actually quite pretty. i asked her if she had made these herself and she said she had. i thanked her. i know i'll wear it, because it represents good will. i was actually amazed at this gift.

i got home, then went to the gym to pick up michael. we went to the store and since i didn't know what kind of fruit she liked, i got her a fresh fruit salad, 2 containers of peaches, 2 apples and 2 oranges.

while in line, this asian woman behind us asked us why we had so much fruit (which is strange because i didn't think it was unusual to buy just fruit). but i said it was for the homeless woman in the parking lot across the street. i could tell she got offended that fremont had a homeless person (asians are scared of any kind of "sketchy" characters. like when i told my mom about the weird asian robot guy, trying to tell her a funny story, but i didn't even get to it because she freaked out thinking that he might have been a deranged rapist or killer). the woman in line said that she gives money to an organization that gives to the homeless, but she doesn't give to them directly. she said it kind of disdainfully.

i told her i understood, because you can't give to everyone. like, it's hard in a big city like san francisco, because you get hit by panhandlers every 50 yards, so you can't possibly give to all of them, especially when you know a lot of them are buying booze or drugs rather than food. and if you can't, it's hard to decide who you do select to give to. but that i like to give food, because you know it's something they need to survive. then i told her about the abuse statistic, and the woman not wanting to just take charity, so she insisted on giving me a bracelet in gratitude. this made this woman backpeddle. she'd started the conversation kind of hardlined, more upset about there being a homeless person openly camping out in fremont, but then because she didn't want to come off like a bad person, she was agreeing with everything i was saying even before i'd finished saying anything.

so we went back to the woman to give her the fruit and she was really happy. i thanked her again for the bracelet and told her it's very beautiful. i asked her to please make sure to stay warm. i'm always compelled to say this to homeless people. like by saying it, it's going to give them extra energy towards ensuring they will be warm in the near future. just like i always tell friends to drive safely when they leave. these things are really important to me. as i was walking away, the animals came out of their hiding places around the cart and approached the bags like children inspecting loot. i heard her say to her animals, oh look at all we've been given! it was really sweet, and really sad. she's either schizophrenic or ptsd. and again, the determination to be dignified despite abject circumstances.

all night, i've been thinking about her and her animals. even from the first time i saw her, holding that puppy like it was a newborn baby. and then the way she talked to them inclusively, clearly seeing them as equals. i've been thinking about how a logical, rational person would look at her situation and say, if she's working hard enough just to keep herself safe and alive, why does she have animals when they would just take away from the resources she needs to survive. but then i thought of it another way, about where it is she may have come from, perhaps a lonely world of terror and voicelessness. perhaps the hell she is coming from is no better if not much worse than her current circumstances. these animals provide her that connection that previous human connections could not. she takes care of these animals lovingly, validating her nurturing power inside, her aliveness, her relevancy. it creates an outlet for love to come out of her and nurture living creatures, thus empowering her with the knowledge that she is not completely worthless--she is giving something of value to those who depend on it. and they in turn, reward her with unconditional love and trust, something she's probably had withheld from her.

i would bet everything i have that she comes from a place where love was conditional if not cruel, and here now we have a woman who is still alive inside, a survivor, trying to find her place in this world.

this woman taught me something today, but i'm still grasping what. just like that sobbing little girl whose memory made me so sad last night, it feels like meeting them and connecting...while i wasn't able to directly help them within their personal life journeys, by seeing and hearing them, they left me with something. it's like a haunting, a seed of truth now unveiled and planted inside you, from which a profound understanding will slowly unravel with time.