Spark In

Do you ever get burned out?
Yeah. Of course I do.
This work is hard. Sometimes it’s thankless. Sometimes it’s heartbreaking. There are days when you pour everything you have into somebody and wonder if any of it made a difference.
And there’s a quiet scorecard in your head.
The people you couldn’t reach.
The doors that stayed closed.
The setbacks.
The losses.
The times you gave everything you had and nobody said thank you.
But somewhere along the way, I made peace with the lack of thank-yous.
Because that was never the point.
The point is the heart behind the work.
Sometimes the victory looks like someone finding a home. Sometimes it’s someone making it through another night. Sometimes it’s watching someone come back and try again.
And sometimes, the victory is something quieter.
A beautiful soul recently went to heaven from the comfort of their own home, surrounded by the people who loved them.
They didn’t die alone on a sidewalk.
They didn’t die in an alley.
They didn’t die in a jail cell.
They went home.
They left this world with dignity, surrounded by love, comfort, and respect.
And that matters.
My mind can tally the disappointments. It can keep track of every frustration, every setback, every time things didn’t go the way I hoped.
But my heart doesn’t keep score.
My heart remembers the people who found a little hope. The people who got another chance. The people who finally had a safe place to lay their head. And the people who, in the end, were able to leave this world surrounded by love instead of loneliness.
That’s the spark.
It isn’t shiny. It isn’t always loud. Some days it’s barely more than an ember.
But it’s steady.
I may get frustrated. I may get tired. I may even get burned out.
But my purpose burns brighter than my frustration.
So I’ll rest when I need to. I’ll breathe when I need to. And then I’ll show up again.
Because somebody out there still needs somebody to show up.
And sometimes, showing up means helping someone find their way home.

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