I am a bleeding heart. This is something you must know about me.
I cry at movies. I cry at life. I cry when someone is hurting. I cry when someone is happy. I get fired up about injustice and I always (and I mean ALWAYS) root for the underdog. Seeing people who are lost in the muck and mire of life and beaten down by systems outside of their control breaks me. The humanness of life is sometimes overwhelming to my heart, especially the ugly side of it.
When I see someone who is lost, I don’t care if it’s because of bad life choices. I don’t care if they are a drug addict. I don’t care if they are mentally ill. I don’t care if they refuse help or shelter. And I honestly don’t really even care if they are working the system and cashing in on the good faith of those that provide charity.
I will still give. And GIVE. And GIVE. And GIVE some more. (seriously it’s very good that my husband is such a balance to my bleeding heart. Otherwise, I would give to an extent that was probably not healthy)
The way I see it, none of us are too far off from the same fate, no matter how much insulation we think our money and our jobs provide. There will be a time in all of our lives when we’ll need help. We’ll need grace. We’ll need someone to look us in the eyes and show us love doesn’t care where we live, doesn’t care what we’ve done. Love just loves.
Heaven knows I’ve needed this in my life more than once. So how could I possibly refuse to do it in return?
The concept of giving is of hot debate in our town right now, this little bubble of a space that we have created where everything is beautiful and manicured and manufactured. This is suburbia at its finest. SUVs. Soccer practice. Moms who lunch. It’s sterile American perfection in a safe little bubble.
But now there is this woman walking around town and she happens to be homeless. This is quite a challenge to our landscape.
As I am prone to do, I have become mildly obsessed with helping this woman and hearing her story and showing her love. This woman walks up and down the streets of our town on crutches. She carries her belongings in a backpack. And as I have watched her for the past few weeks, I’ve seen humanness at its finest. I’ve seen people stop. Talk to her. Offer help. Give her food. Give her money.
I am one of those people.
But I’ve also seen the other side of our humanness, the ugly side. Early on in my quest to help I made the mistake of venturing over to a post about her on Nextdoor. It was a wormhole. All 200 comments. All the negativity. The politics. The arguing. I read it all. Couldn’t stop. And then my heart got kind of sick.
Because people got ugly. They got all grandma with a shotgun on the porch “Not on my lawn.” They looked at her as a problem that needed to be eradicated before she brought the rest of her homeless buddies up to these clean and safe streets. They looked at helpers as enablers and charity as an invitation for danger and ugliness to show up in our neighborhood.
“Leave the helping to the authorities.”
“If you keep feeding her she will never go to a shelter.”
“You’re enabling her to stay homeless.”
“She is using this as a ruse and taking advantage of our town.” (this one gets me every time. Yes, she’s homeless because it’s beneficial to her. Makes perfect sense.)
Friends. This is a person. She has a name. She has a heart that beats. She has a soul that God loves. She deserves more than this nonsense.
She deserves food. She deserves shelter. She deserves a comb. (seriously, that’s what she asked for when I talked with her. A comb. It breaks my heart that this was her wish. To comb her hair. To feel HUMAN). She deserves to be looked in the eye. Not avoided. Helped.
Isn’t that what we’re called to do? 
It’s clear to me that we give with our heart. We argue about it with our heads. And let me tell you, there is only one side of that debate that makes sense to the soul.
Listen, I’m not political at all. In fact, I avoid hot button issues and debates like the plague even when things are going well in our country. It’s not in my wheelhouse. And I’m not going to make this into a debate about solutions to solve homelessness and poverty. I’ve got absolutely none of those. I don’t even have a good idea on how we would start. So if you email me with some rhetoric about why helping is wrong and she needs to go to a shelter and I’m the problem I’m going to delete it. That simple.
But I will say if you believe helping one person with food and water is enabling than you just don’t understand. Helping someone with basic human needs is not going to send out a beacon to the rest of the homeless in the area. Showing kindness to one person who desperately needs it is not going to be the downfall of our perfect suburbia (and really, who cares if it is. The suburbs are weird).
Friends, that is LOVE.
And isn’t love something we can all agree on?
Whew. I just got a little sopaboxy up in here, didn’t I? Sorry about that, friends. I hope you have a heart that can break too. Because it’s not the minds of this world that are going to mend it, it’s the hearts.
So today, I’m sharing an easy recipe. One that you can whip up for breakfast (or dinner) when you want to love on your family, but you don’t necessarily want to cook for them. It’s quick and painless and SO EASY to customize. I typically make the ham and cheese version because my kids love it–they call it egg pizza. But my favorite is mushroom and spinach. Potato and olive with oregano is another great combo. The options are endless. Once you master the tactics, just sub in what you want. It’ll be a winner winner (non-chicken) dinner that everyone will love.
Peace, love and, well, love,
Meg
Ham and Cheese Frittata
Ingredients
- 10 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream (sub half and half)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 cup diced ham
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- salt and pepper
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 350.
- Step 2 In a large bowl, whisk eggs, cream and salt and pepper together until well blended.
- Step 3 Melt butter in a 10 inch ovenproof skillet (preferably cast iron).
- Step 4 Add half of the ham, stirring until crispy (roughly 2-3 minutes). Spread on the bottom of the pan as evenly as possibly.
- Step 5 Remove pan from heat.
- Step 6 Pour egg mixture on top, quickly adding in the rest of the ham, cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.
- Step 7 Transfer to oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until puffed and golden.
- Step 8 Enjoy (perfect with hot sauce).
Welcome to BurntToast! My name is Meaghan, and this is my safe space, a place where we can share stories, share recipes and share life. It’s my dream that you can come here, kick your shoes off and pour yourself a glass of wine while you read, laugh, and maybe even hop into the kitchen. This is my heart, for all of you to see. And ALL are welcome here.