I've talked about Dan the Beer Can Man before on my blog. He's a homeless man who I run into once and awhile on my running route. God always seems to put him in my path when I need a life lesson. I hadn't seen him for quite some time but ran into him tonight.
"Hey Dan! I haven't seen you for awhile, where have you been?"
He seemed different today. There was something about him. He seemed calm and quiet.
"I've been in the hospital, just got out 2 days ago."
"Well thats good. Did you get your hip fixed?"
"I was jumped again. They beat me up and stole my shopping cart and all my empties. The left side of my body is numb but I'm not going to let it die. I'm just gonna keep on walking and collecting my empties. There's too much to live for."
"That's terrible!" I thought to myself, who would do that? He has so little and they even take that!
"Well Dan at least you are still walking and you survived the hospital. You said if you ever went in there you would come out in a box."
"Yeah I'm not giving up" he said. "I could be paralized and stuck in the hospital. It's such beautiful weather isn't it? The colours are so beautiful. There's so much to be thankful for."
He actually said that!
"Yeah they told me at the hospital that they found me in the creek behind Midtown Mall and that I had been there for 3 days. They had to cut off my beard cuz it had all duck poop in it."
My heart broke. "I'm so sorry Dan." Then I pulled a Cam (if you watched Modern Family last night you would understand). Let's just say I got emotional.
Maybe I should have invited him to Thanksgiving dinner or maybe I should have prayed with him but all I could do was pat his shoulder and say in my shaky Cam voice "Hang in there Dan."
He wished me Happy Thanksgiving and then I ran off and had a good cry. I treasured my run, the beautiful fall weather and all the beautiful colours and was thankful for the lesson to appreciate all the little things in life. There's so much to live for!
