Life Through David's Eyes...

Currently I have "homeless" neighbours.  What I mean is that the people living in the house next to me are actually homeless people that need a place to stay.  The person that owns the house is renovating it to flip it and he is letting the labourers that work for him stay there.

David is one of the men that currently reside there.  He is a happy-go-lucky guy and is never upset, and always has a smile on his face.  He doesn't drink alcohol, go to the bars, or gamble.  He had a bad hand dealt to him years ago and is now trying to recover from the events.  Other than a bike, he has very little material possessions and makes do with what he has.  He works long hours, for little pay, and smiles as he does so.  He has a soft spot for my kids that I didn't quite understand and you can see they bring him joy when they are out playing in the front or backyard.  He builds them gifts out of scrap wood, gives them items he finds on his reno jobs (such as a soccer net) and enjoys the look on their faces when they see what treasures he has found for them.  

I have gotten to know David a bit since he started working on the house around Easter and he has a great heart and appears to mean well. He wasn't always the person he is now.  The spiral of events that brought him to the circumstances he lives today happened in merely a split second.  The love of his life (and mother of his newborn daughter) was killed in a car accident on the way to meet with him one evening.  To deal with the pain he began to self-medicate.  His drug use and drinking got out of hand.  He went from having everything important to him, to having nothing in an instant.  He never got to see his daughter again (which he believes is for the best, as she should not have to see a father in his state).  

We were sitting outside one day watching the kids playing and out of nowhere David said "Chris [my hubby] is such a lucky man.  He's got a wife, beautiful kids, a house, a steady job, and a dog.  I hope he knows that."  I assured him that he did.  This last weekend it had been about three days since we had seen David and when the kids saw him they ran at him and attacked him playfully (much to my dismay... kids shouldn't do that to anyone).  They were very excited to see him. David's response to it all "That is the coolest thing!"  It got me thinking about it all and yes, we are very lucky and we do have it pretty good.  Sometimes it takes viewing the world through David's eyes to appreciate how much we truly have in this world.