It's all good.

Have compassion on yourself and trust: the work may be slow, but it IS happening. And it's all good. Diane Walker. Contemplative Photography

Yesterday I had a visit with a man, a former client of the shelter where I work, who wants to be part of a new play we're creating for the Possibilities Project. "I've got 36 credits towards my theatre arts degree," he smiled. Chipped teeth. Missing front tooth. A street smile. "I got a grade eight education and the only way I got any education beyond that was in prison."

He sat on the other side of my desk, his hands shaking as he passed me a sheath of papers on which he'd written his ideas. "You gotta excuse me. I'm pretty nervous. I really want to do this."

I reassured him. "No need to be nervous. The project is about hearing every voice. About giving every voice a place to be heard."

Earlier that day I'd met with Onalea Gilbertson, co-creator of the loosely woven map we've created for the play. It's working title is, The Rivers. It is a metaphor for life. All life. We are all connected. All in the river of life, the waters flowing over, under, through, around, within us. The shelter stands along the river at the edge of our downtown core. The neighbourhood is situated at the confluence of two rivers. The river flows around us and we are part of the flow.

"I think we need to make the play a love story," my visitor told me. "But tragic. Like the street. So few love stories ever make it out alive."

He was 'on the street' for most of his adult life. He's in his mid forties now. Has had a place to call his own for just over a year. "I've been sober that long too," he told me. "This time, I'm holding onto my sobriety. Getting sober isn't about quitting drinking. It's about letting go of what possesses you."

He wants to give back. To share his knowledge to inspire those still mired in the street to 'find a different way of thinking.'

"People ask me, 'what's different about you? You've changed.' I tell them, "Yeah. I've changed the way I think."

My friend Don Steirer of Life without Drama says, "Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change."

For the man with the grade eight education and 36 credits towards his degree, who sat in my office yesterday talking fast, ideas pouring forth like a river leaping over itself, racing to reach the sea, a new way of thinking has changed his life. He's quit looking at the street as where he belongs and is looking at being 'at home' with himself as his place to be.

It's a powerful message.

"I don't know where this journey's going," he said. "I do know, it's going to a helluva lot better place than when the only thing I thought about was my next drink. Thinking about staying liquored up, I didn't think much about anything or anyone else. Now, I'm thinking about my sobriety and what it means to me. It's worth my life."

And, it's all good.

The question is: What's your life worth? Are your thoughts keeping you back from expressing your true worth?