I hated working in the financial industry. There was a time that I simply dreaded waking in the morning until it finally made me sick. One day I realized that I had to change. Change my attitude, to gratitude. That changed everything. I walked to work each day crossing the Cambie Bridge while giving thanks to the many blessings in my life. “I’m thankful for my legs and my eyes, my nose and ears on this walk to work. I am thankful as I see and feel the ocean.” “I am thankful I have a job” and so on. It worked and by the time I got to work I had fuelled myself for the day’s grind in the stock markets.
This attitude adjustment also brought about the return of my writing and that’s when I first started blogging six years ago. Many of my writings were pure rants against the Bush years and the gross profiteering of grandiose proportions happening all around me. I changed until I could finally give love to that which I hated. I was now thankful for each morning. The rants turned into antidotes of inspiration and observations. I got engaged and married my true love. Left the stock market kept writing and started freelancing. I am now also a father and everyday, every moment, I am intensely aware of, and ever so grateful and blessed to be a witness to the life I am experiencing. The life that we all are experiencing right now, this very weekend.
This past week my wife participated in the pre-kick off to Gratitude Week to end homelessness, which begins Monday and runs October 12-16. Volunteers like her showed up early in the morning at the Vancouver Art Gallery and stood on the streets holding cardboard signs with messages of gratitude. It was quite the experience. I think it’s perfect timing for such an event and I thought I’d simply interview my wife about it for this story.
Where did you first hear about Gratitude Week, to end homelessness?
I heard about it through my friend Colette who invited me through Facebook.
It really spoke to me because I do feel incredibly grateful about so many aspects of my life and I think people need to share that positivity publicly. The fact that it raises awareness about the growing homelessness problem in our city makes it that much more important.
What were you doing a week ahead of its start day this Thanksgiving Monday?
The two days I was out we were raising interest and awareness for the following week’s activities. I think we really brightened some days. Lots of smiles from people, and knowing nods, and even a couple of spontaneous hugs from strangers walking by!
Would you share some more of your experiences while on the street those mornings?
Yes! It was a fascinating social experiment, in some ways. At first you feel kind of exposed and people are trying not to look at you, but they want to know why someone who looks clean and well-fed and sober, is standing on the corner holding a cardboard sign. I was stationed the first day at Burrard St. and Georgia during the morning rush hour (7:30am-9:00am). We had lots of interest from passersby. A tour bus full of American shoppers wanted to know what was going on got their bus driver to come and ask me. A couple of joggers, also from the States and a guy in fuzzy bunny slippers with a great big growly voice on his way home from a party stopped by. Then there was a woman who just spontaneously gave me $20, even though we were not asking for money. I love Vancouver!
With over 2,500 Vancouverites sleeping on the streets today local initiatives such as Gratitude Week are the only hope in these last months amidst the Olympic cash grab. Under the “Give a Dollar, Give a Damn” volunteers will collect donations so watch for them this week holding their thankful cardboard signs. Money raised will go towards renovating two hotels to accommodate the homeless, the Gastown Hotel and the old Pender Hotel that will be renamed the Gratitude Hotel.
We went back to the Vancouver Art Gallery Monday morning for the official kick-off where I met Ron Josephson the main organizer for the event. Josephson, a local barrister, has been working non-stop on the project with his team and is hopeful Vancouverites will “Give a Dollar, Give a Damn” this week. The team had built a “Gratitude Wall” where we wrote down what we were grateful for on a white card and tied them up to the wall. The entire Gratitude Week initiative is a great idea that I hope will remind people to step out of their comfortable boxes and participate in solutions to end homelessness in Vancouver. I thought my uncle, who also participated in the event summed it up best when he said, “I was freezing holding a sign for a couple of hours but then I thought about the homeless doing this every day. I am so grateful for my life.”
I am especially grateful that I can write, that I can share through words, where my mouth and heart stray from one another. That I can launch out of my vernacular speed limit and exceed the usual distance one plays with creative license to communicate. Thank you.
by Joseph Pinheiro & Keli Westgate
www.gratitudeweek.org
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