“It all gets better.”

He was sitting on a bicycle on the corner of the street at the intersection between the heroin dealers and the crack dealers. The rain was just starting and the sun had gone down. He was in some way involved in some number of the iniquities going down on that corner.

A young couple walked by him hunched from the rain’s arrival with a look of consternation on their faces. They could easily have been guarded against a feeling of fear walking among this gathering of folks truly down and out and maybe up to no good. But he read their look as one of heaviness not one of disdain, and no matter what weight lay on his shoulders or what trials lay ahead in his path, he gave them, with a tone of benevolence and regard that simple line, “It all gets better”.

That was the line to sum up today. And it was so profound because today has been one for the record books on awesome.

With the sun painting golden light on snow covered mountain tops and the sounds of waves gently lapping at the beach, I rose. After a cup of tea and the light show across the sound on the islands to the west, we ventured out for a wander around a beautiful lake. Strolling through fairy groves of moss covered cedar, and along raised walkways through beaver developed dams and bogs. The geese and ducks set out cadence with their calls across the water and the birds of the forests replied with their own melodic tones. Sun dappled trails opened up to the hills and forests beyond, and watercolor quality views of this splendid scene greeted us in perfect intervals along our hike.

The afternoon was back in the garden. Hands and wheelbarrows full of fresh compost and soil became newly prepped beds ready to receive the planting of this seasons bounty. A shower and a change and off to the big city. The tall forests gave way to tall buildings and the cars multiplied and drove faster and faster. And so did we, into the heart of the urban jungle for one of the greatest restaurant experiences I’ve had in a while. The food was not too much, the attention was not too little and the company was of the highest caliber.

We were on foot to find our evening meal. We dodged rats roaming the curbs and homeless guardians of alleys and parks. There were drug dealers and buyers, pimps and whores. These were the folks who had fallen down, way down. This fellow was among a prize collection of the urban unwanted. He was in thick of the mess. And from his position, from his bicycle perch, he was able to offer a blessing, a message of hope.

It all gets better. It really does. This fellow could remember it, as well as share it. I hope that I can too.