The Wanderer

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

I came into our hospice to volunteer on a Saturday afternoon.  When I arrived, the nurse’s informed me of someone who I could visit with today.

I always enjoy hearing that kind of news when I come in to volunteer.  Because that always means that I will have an interesting visit!

I walked into the room and see a large middle-aged guy with a long bushy beard lying in bed.  Immediately he looked like an interesting guy!

He had just finished lunch and his nurse was collecting his food tray and was leaving.  I sat down in the chair next to his bed and facing him.

He was a lifelong homeless man by choice!  He had lived in Northern Arizona with his mother.  One day he was sitting in her front yard, and he said that he heard the voice of God say, “give it up!”

So, he sold off the few possessions that he had and then just started walking down the road!  Thus, starting his life as a “Wanderer.” 

He was in his right mind, that lifestyle was just his chosen way to live.  Most homeless people are mentally ill or are drug or alcohol addicts.

But this bearded gentleman was of a sound mind and drug and alcohol free.  He just wanted total freedom to wander around the country as he saw fit.

Our society looks at homeless people as one large group.  We call all of them as “homeless people.”  But that is not totally correct.

Drug and alcohol addicts call themselves homeless in order to get some money to buy drugs or alcohol.  They will panhandle on the street corners or wash windows.

 They do that to get enough money to buy drugs of alcohol.  They call that, “going to work.”  They go to work to make their drug money, once they have their drugs, they get stoned for a few weeks at a time.

Homeless people who stay drug and alcohol free, they call themselves, “wanderers.”  That’s because they choose a lifestyle of wandering around the country.  Plus, they don’t want to be grouped in with the drug and alcohol addicts.

He shared with me how they survive on the streets without any money, how they get money and how to get free food and something to drink.  He really gave me a good education!

He shared a lot of stories about his life on the road and the streets with me in the nine hours that I visited with him!

One story was a time that he was in the countryside of Oregon.  He was with a Native-American under an overpass.  They were camping there for the night.

They started a small fire and the Indian had a small drum!  They spent the evening banging the drum and singing Indian songs! 

When the evening was over and they were retiring for the night, the Indian gave him the Navajo name of “water bird!”

When he got sick with cancer, he went to live with his brother in a little town about fifty miles north of our hospice.  Now that his cancer is progressing, he needs round-the-clock care.

Our hospice took him on as a charity case, which is not uncommon for us to do that for in indigent.  Even the poor should die with some dignity!

In the end, he came to the conclusion that people should forgive and love one another!  I liked that thought, and I thought that his life, in the end, did in fact teach him a good lesson.

Have you ever meet a wanderer?  Can you tell me about them in the comments section?

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Brother Roop
April 10, 2010