Homeless by Choice

Sometimes homelessness can't be helped, it just happens. Other times, it is by choice.

This is Cornelius' 8th day homeless. It is also his 8th day clean and sober. Cornelius chose to be homeless. He took himself out of the problem of drugs and alcohol. Some may say now he has different problems. This may be true. But he'd rather live clean. Cornelius is 78 years old.

He has become one of my heroes. Not because of his stellar life choices or his growing faith, but because of his courage. Cornelius left what was wrong behind and is striving towards what he can be clean. And he's scared. He'll tell anyone how scared he is. But to an addict of years and years, 8 days is a big deal.

Some people I have encountered in the past two weeks are homeless because of terrible choices they have made. Some because they lost their jobs, like thousands of others in this economy. Some because they fall into the 50% of homeless people that have a mental illness. But there are some, like Cornelius, who are homeless because it's what is best for them.

Until next time, do what's best for you, even if it's the hard choice.