heartstrings

Two kids AWOL’d at work today.  They ran as if we would chase them.  We don’t chase kids.  We want them to stay, to figure out recovery for themselves.  But often this doesn’t happen.  Today it didn’t happen.  Again.

I am sad and pissed.  Pissed at parents who don’t parent, pissed at the ‘the village’ that only judges and doesn’t step in.  And sad for two kids who have no plan other than running to no where in particular.  I am hoping they stop running and walk back.  We’d take them in and start all over again.

I wanted to find them, two needles in a large haystack, but there is no stopping the mind that is made up.  The body just follows its urges; and some urges are too big.  Some problems seem the same, insurmountable to a soul that has lived no other way. And sometimes, sadly, in the moment they are.  Patience is not a constant companion, she is shy and unpredictable and needs to slowly build trust.

I know two men who suffered through difficult childhoods, like the boys I work with ..one found his way out in inexplicable ways and one just never has.  I cannot explain why this so.  When I go to work, I always hope that the boys in my charge will be like the first man.  Today, they were like second.