On this day, we look back on our ancestors – the well-known saints like Francis and Therese, the poets like Uncle Wendell, and also our old growth forests, the very ones we so ignorantly cut down – and we pray that their lives, love, and imagination might flow into us, and, in that way, shape our future.

The overwhelming amount of love and acceptance is something I noticed repeatedly throughout my summer as an intern and is what I grew to appreciate and admire most. All of this love I was receiving was the exact fuel I needed to give back my own love, support, and acceptance to the community of Dandelion House and Portland as a whole.

Our interactions under the bridge run the gamut. Yes, we occasionally face difficult situations. We are working with people who carry enormous burdens of stress and suffering, after all. What consistently surprises me, though, is how often those we serve, who have every reason to be enraged with the world, are simply, sincerely grateful. Even so, my conversation with this particular young man struck differently somehow.