14 Teens, March 11 Daily Reflection

Teen Sleeping during Cardboard Box Village

Fourteen teenage bodies curled against the cold temperatures trying to stay warm within their makeshift cardboard boxes, lay silent and still in the frigid night air. Seeking understanding and insight into the lives of the “outcast” and marginalized of our culture, they refuse to complain enduring the lack of warmth and comfort to be privy to a night in the life a homeless person on the street. Thinking “I can do this I really can make it through” they lay wondering if they will feel their toes soon. On a 26 hour journey into the reality of another life, they have yet to know, they think of those less fortunate for they have nice warm beds at home, for they have a home. Listening, learning, taking it all in they feel that connection the story of the teenager, that picture of the 12 year old boy, those cold hard facts that do not lie, they see it is not that far away. That Mom, that child, that run away teen desperate for a change, for another chance. So they take it; the cold and discomfort, the lack of cell phones and rationed food, bellies growling in honor of that person, that other child of God so distant yet growing ever closer with every realization. Those 14 teenagers gained knowledge, sympathy and understanding for human dignity in their cardboard boxes on the asphalt of the parking lot that night.

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