What God’s been teaching me is that you can’t trust nobody. I am staying in a hotel on New York Avenue that is for people who need shelter but are more at risk of serious complications with COVID-19. (The program is called PEP-V.) I came from the shelter across the street: Adam’s Place.
When I think of Adam’s Place Shelter, the first thing I think of is “The Addams Family.” We all remember the TV show. It was a dysfunctional family but a loving one.
Without going into too much detail about my own, I’ll say a lot of families are this way: dysfunctional but loving. And a lot of our families hold a lot of deep secrets. But secrets destroy families. As Black men and women, we need to express ourselves together. We need to learn how to talk to each other about how we feel and how hard we hurt, because it can sometimes feel like your own family doesn’t really love you as much as you love them.
I will be the first person to take full responsibility for how I hurt my family by being on drugs and getting locked all the time. I was not there as a man for my family. I love my mother very much, for always. Especially for forgiving me for the lies that I told to her and my sister, and for stealing things out the house where my mother and father allowed me to live.
I thank MBI Health and the hotel where I’m staying for giving me another chance to learn how to live around people. I have a lot of anger in me for not loving people the way I want to be loved. The hotel and Adam’s Place and MBI have become my family, too.
The more I go to God in prayer, the more my thinking changes. Change started for me when I took a look at myself and prayed to God to change my way of thinking and take full responsibility for my own actions. I now try to lift my Black brothers and sisters up and promise to always be a family to them.
Peace to those who don’t feel that they have a family. Love always. Prayed up.
