During yesterday afternoon's general assembly a spokeswoman from the medical team was addressing the need for volunteer counselors at the “Occupy Wall St.” site. This instantly caught my attention as I felt a calling to be involved [amazing how the internet can connect us to virtually anything going on in our social world at any given time]. Given my background as a therapist/coach I knew this could be something very suiting for me.
When I arrived this evening I went straight to the medical team located on the east side of liberty plaza. A very nice woman who was eager to get me involved greeted me, took my information, and told me she would be in contact with me by the end of the day tomorrow.
[Now here is the kicker…read the following carefully and see how this all divinely fits together]
I asked her “what type of help has been needed here, what have you seen?” She told me that, generally speaking, the people who have been occupying this space are starting to really feel stressed and warn out given the constant high energy of the environment, rain, and general stressful conditions. She also told me about an incident involving a man who was in serious need of attention from the night prior. She told me he had lost his wife a few months ago and too cope he was using a heavy cocktail of painkillers and drinking heavily. She told me that he was brought to medical last night after an incident of self-abuse. She digressed and I assured her that I was ready to help in anyway possible. We discussed a few ideas of how we could address general mental health issues in the plaza and shortly there after I left the medical area.
The night progressed; I met other occupants and participants. It was a very cheery night filled with a lot of passion, courage, and non-fear sentiment. As evening General Assembly meetings commenced I made my way to the GA area were everyone gathered to listen. At some point during the GA meeting hunger struck and I walked over to the “kitchen” area to grab a donated dinner. At this point I started to talk with a man who was also feeding himself. Let’s call him Anthony for the sake of confidentiality.
One thing led to another and we started small talk. I asked him if he had been occupying the space or simply coming down to visit during the day. He told me he was coming here every night, but for reasons that I found out later, he was “busy during the day.” His demeanor was lethargic and it seemed as if he drunk, not completely out of it, but he definitely was a little cloudy. Regardless, he started to share with me his life story. I got the feeling he trusted me and felt comfortable to open himself up.
He had told me that he had been out of work since June. I asked him “why where you laid off?” ... He paused and then looked down at the ground… “It’s complicated, my wife died in June.” He had been out of work and homeless since then because his life was to much to bear due to the emotional realization that the love of his life, his wife, was no longer was alive. He was a bartender before all of this occurred. To give you an idea of his family situation: the day his wife died he called his father to tell him. His father’s response was “Go to work, lets talk tomorrow.” With nothing left in his swollen heart he resorted to pain killers and found himself unable to “function” in this “normal” society. He was around 30 years old, homeless, and hopeless. Occupying Wall St. seemed to be a suiting fit for him, given his knowledge and belief that corporate America is destroying the liberties this country was founded on.
{At this point it all hit me! Here is Anthony! This is the guy that the medical team told me about! And out of the thousand or so people that occupied the plaza I met him…I firmly believe there was a divine power that brought us together…so much so that in that moment, despite his tragic story, my ego lifted, and I was fully there with him, fully immersed in his journey…
He continued to tell me his story. He told me how he used to love going to the super market with his wife because she was a great cook. She was Northern Italian with blue eyes and blond hair and she cooked up a mean lasagna. He told me how perfect she was, how beautiful she was, and how she was an angel to him because she kept him on a straight path.
He seemed to be really relieved to talk to someone who was not placing judgment on the situation and allowed him the space to simply speak his truth and too speak his experience without any worry. He even showed me how he was self abusive the night prior.
He told me of the tragedy of how she died, and to respect both Anthony and his deceased wife I will not share the story here…but let’s just say it is extremely tragic as she died in his arms.
We talked more for a short while before he told me he needed to find his sleeping bag because someone stole his the night prior. I knew that at this point he had expelled enough of his experience. He was now ready to step into the "moment beyond talking about his pain." As we stepped away from each other he looked at me and stated, “Yo man, I feel a lot lighter right now, thank you, let’s talk again soon.” My heart was filled with life and I looked at him and said “Thank you Anthony for sharing your story with me. You are filled with great courage!” We walked away, and I realized that for that time I was lifted out of the intensity of the plaza and into something moving, serene, and divine.
Given my “position” now at the medical team at liberty plaza he knows how to reach me. After this encounter I went over to the woman who told me about him and I told her about my “random coincidence” with bumping into him and having, pretty much, an impromptu therapy session. We were both blown away by the divine synchronicity that had occurred!
I will be down at “Occupy Wall St.” most of my nights, connecting, giving, and receiving from all the real compassion that is unfolding there. This is not some “hippy” movement. This is a real, progressive movement, of loving folks who want the causes of injustice and profits over human need to end. It is not just about reforming our economic system…it is about waking up the world to show everyone and each other that we are part of something greater than each individual…to realize that we are part of humanity and we should start acting like that and create a society that respects this fact to its highest degree. I will state it here…Living and acting for the sake of profit will only divide us and destroy the world in which we inhabit…It is time to seek a different way…and that is what this movement is all about!
An amazing moment of connection.
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