First snow of the season

We got a fresh blanket of snow overnight -- enough to warrant shovelling the walk outside the church (at least before most of it melted).  Shovelling snow in lotus land is rare enough that I like doing it, but I thought I'd just set the snow shovel outside the door and see what happens.   I was pleased to look out a few minutes later to see "Milton" doing the sidewalk, still dark out, before he'd had breakfast.    He's got a gruff exterior and manner, but a big heart.       He's the kind of guy that when he sees something that needs doing, he does it.  After the Community Meal on Tuesday night, he also picked up the big broom and swept the whole dining hall.


Unfortunately, he also tends to pick up things that don't belong to him, and this has got him into trouble with the law.  He's one of those people known as "known to the police", so he gets stopped a lot just to make sure he's doing well.

He told me he spent last winter in a minimum security camp where he worked as a janitor.  I realized then that I had visited his home -- a tarped area hidden behind an abandoned industrial building near Budget Brake and Muffler on No. 3 Rd.   When I went in to get some brake work done the owner told me about a homeless guy who lived nearby who they'd pretty much adopted.  They'd let him sit in the waiting area, offer him coffee and the mechanics and owner would also bring food in for him.    But they hadn't seen him in quite a while and were worried about him. So I went over with one of the mechanics to his spot to check up on him.   The tarp had collapsed and his meagre belongings were covered in snow.  It was a disturbing sight, but we were relieved to have not found a body.  I learned from the RCMP bike squad later, that he'd been incarcerated for petty theft.  

The building where Milton lived is long since torn down and he now bunks down under a tarp somewhere else when the shelter isn't open.

Doing time for a wrongdoing, then getting out is like starting over with a clean sheet of paper, like a blanket of freshly fallen snow.  Watching Milton shovelling the sidewalk this morning from a distance, there are no signs of his gruffness or his past -- all you can see is a man with a big heart.