New Slate

Shame and pain
seem to go hand-in-hand
these days.
I just got out today,
and I try
hold my head high.
No one knows me here,
but it's like they all know
what I've done.
They can't though.
This is like a new start
for me.
I haven't had one
of those in a long time.
I've needed it, I guess.
I got no family left,
so it's a completely fresh slate.
This time my past won't catch up with me.

Today while working at the St. Francis house, I over heard a woman say that this was a new start for her. It make me think. Don't we all need that sometimes. My high school back home was devastated a little over a week ago by a friend taking his own life. I wonder if he had a chance for a fresh start would it have made a difference. I wonder if he ever had the chance. He brought my community back home to it's knees. Yesterday I walked through the halls of my high school and the laughter that was there when I walked the halls was sadly dimmed. Now I walked through the door of a homeless shelter and I find joy and home that each one of those back home should feel. I believe that most of us could use a new start, a blank slate. This slate is given to us every morning when we wake up. We can't change what we wrote in the past, but we can change what we are going to write. We have a chance to ask for forgiveness and have the past wiped away. The problem is are we willing to forgive ourselves to accept the gift that's waiting for us?