Basking in the Sun...

For many of us who like to eat on a regular basis, we have to get up in the morning, walk the dogs, shower, dress, and go to work. Others refuse to follow that conventional path and think that if they just stand there, doing little more than basking in the sun, breakfast will show up at their feet…and it often does.

No one ever said life was fair.

I’m reminded of the homeless guy on St George Street. That’s the main thoroughfare for tourists visiting St Augustine. He has claimed his own spot on the cobblestone path, propped up against an old coquina wall.

He spends his days there relaxing in the sunshine.

Carla and I had just left a nearby restaurant and as is typical for me, I had filled up on soup, bread, and salad before the entrée ever hit the table. So I was carrying my shrimp dinner, packed away, untouched, in a Styrofoam box. Seeing that man’s familiar slouch and his sunburned beef-jerky face looking up at the passing crowd, I felt compassion. The image of that poor guy lying there as the parade of overfed visitors marched past, oblivious, holding bags of Pralines and sucking on super-sized sodas, pushed me to offer him the box.

A real meal.

“Would you like a nice shrimp dinner from Harry’s? I haven’t touched it.” I offered. I thought that was going to make his day.

Eyes only on the Styrofoam box, as if skeptical of my gift, he asked: “How was the shrimp prepared?”

A bit taken back, I told him it was Alfredo.

Without ever looking up at me, he responded: “I’ll pass”.

Should he be jealous of me and my life? Should I be jealous of him and his? None of it is mutually exclusive, we all have our own path.

But now, when I think of that guy, I no longer see only that tattered, dried out apple doll of a man leaning up against the coquina wall.

I also see a Great Blue Heron in his element, basking in the sun, waiting for a meal to show up at his feet.