Midweek, A Honolulu Periodical, featured Houseless Friend

My friend is in the bottom corner. She has a difficult life in a wheelchair on the street but is all about being kind to others. She asks for money, she doesn’t steal. If you’re ever in downtown Honolulu and you mention you saw her in this blog she will treat you like family. In truth, she will treat you like that anyway. She is an example of spiritually overcoming circumstances, and I say that without idealizing her. Not everyone would condone her panhandling lifestyle but not everyone would approve of me–or you. My character flaw, one of them, is I tend to be bitter and untrusting. She brings me out of that. One example–she encouraged me to be nice to a woman on the street who was never nice to anyone, who stole and snitched. Why help this woman after she herself ended up in a wheelchair? Royce said, “she is one of us.” With all of my education that thought had never occurred to me, although I did muse that the woman’s Karma had come back to her. Royce embodies what I have learned about God. We do not want God to be fair with us, what we really want is Mercy! And that is my friend Roycie, mercy in action.