Three blankets and a pair of boots.
I hoped I could help someone, or maybe a few people,
stay warm.

It took me a while to find the place.
Tucked away in a corner
between two major highways near the airport.
I’ve been past there a million times or more,
but never IN the neighborhood.
I expected to drive up and drop off the blankets and go on to the next errand.
A day in town to myself, grocery shopping and maybe seeing a friend at the Market.

I’ve been tense, to put it mildly. Snappish. Frustrated.
Upset with the violence and vitriol of this world,
Including the recent attack on Speaker Pelosi’s husband, an assassination attempt,
But further and deeply disgusted by the response to this from the GOP:
Mocking him, laughing about it, making up stories,
Not a word of sympathy or condemnation of the attack.
I’ve been sickened by the mean-spiritedness of people. It numbs my mind.

When I pulled up to the place, there were numerous cars parked.
Signs read: Parking for volunteers only!
I backed up, parked near the homeless tent camp,
Grabbed the bag of blankets, locked my car, and went inside.

A trans woman spoke to me briefly. I asked her what the name of the place was.
She pointed to a sign that said “Community Service Center”
Which was standing behind a portable clothes rack,
But that didn’t tell me much.
I asked her if they also took clothing donations—yes of course they did.

I went back to my car and got the boots.
Outside, some people were rifling through a box of toys
And others were going through a clothes rack.
Back inside I handed someone the boots,
And a man pushing an empty grocery cart stopped to speak with me.
He asked me if it was my first time there.
Yes, I said, though I’ve driven by here more times than I can count.
We get that a lot, he said, laughing.
I wouldn’t have known about it at all, I said, except that a friend in Paris (Paris!)
Asked me to bring some spare blankets to this address.
He explained that he was a volunteer with a local civic club
And somehow, I started crying.

I’m sorry, I said, I’ve been so depressed about the state of the world
And here you all are,
Doing the Work.

They have a soup kitchen, a food bank, tiny homes on the property as well as tents.
He talked to me for ten minutes and then introduced me to the pastor,
Because it was, after all, a church,
Though I had seen no signs of it being a church.
They gave me contact information for low-income housing to pass along to a friend,
And volunteer information for yet another organization which builds tiny homes.
I thanked them
and then I teared up again.

It wasn’t much.
Three blankets and a pair of boots.
I thought I’d make someone warmer
I didn’t expect the ice to break in my own heart.