providing hope

It's so strange to think of the things and the people that fill my time and my thoughts these days, and how different life was just a year ago. I just got home from a recognition dinner for prison volunteers through a ministry called Providing Hope. We were sequestered in a tiny room in a busy buffet-style restaurant, and I'm very sure the patrons outside partaking of the constant hot banquet didn't hear our conversation, our applause, or even notice there was a group of people in the room until we came out to get food. I looked around at the people filling that little room, and really, there weren't many who looked like much. Very ordinary to be honest.

But they are the people that fill my thoughts, the people connected with the local prison. I've met so many people because of my son's incarceration. When I got home my husband was on the phone with a man he is mentoring. When I logged on to my e-mail there was a message alert-another friend I know in prison. The families of the incarcerated, those that serve them, the inmates themselves...what a large part of my life they are now. I can't imagine my life without them. Without the honor of giving them my friendship, hope, belief in the future. I get the same in return ten times over.

It is strange how things work out in life, but I'm grateful for the way they are now.