Snap, crackle, pop!

That was the sound my back made this morning as I laid in bed and stretched hard. You ever sprawl out and stretch so hard, with your legs flexed, that both of your legs just vibrate and shake? It is hard to describe in words, but it feels really good, and is also amazingly weird at the same time! Got up and started loosening my body up and it feels awesome to be alive today. Spent some extra time on my arms, legs, neck and back and now I can say I am awake! The work outs are paying off, not only visually, but also in strength and that really good sore feeling the third day afterward. Now if I could just love running half as much, I would be set. It is hard to run when no one is chasing you...lol

Cooler this morning, which is a big relief. There has been a serious heat wave for the last few weeks here in Missouri with days reaching up into the heat indexes of 110 degrees and humidity as high as 90 percent before it would rain! I am thankful for the cooler weather, but also wished I had waited till today to get all my yard work done. Yesterday, I was a sweaty, dirty, nasty mess, but man! The place looks good now! I love it when everything is trimmed right, the bushes have sharp edges and the lines on the grass seems to point to happy. It had been getting just a bit shaggy with all the rain we have had. Yay...it is all done...for awhile.

My toes keep popping, but it feels good.

So today, I am headed into the city with kind of a mission, if it works out. I have been going to the same coffee shop in the heart of Westport since I started driving and there is someone there I want to talk to. Westport is kind of Kansas City's shopping and party district, but it is in Old Town. This is not the new shiny Power and Light district, or the tony and swank Country Club Plaza, but rather the real heart and soul of the city in Midtown. it can be loud, noisy and dirty sometimes and kind of compares the the Haight and Ashbury of San Fran, just on a way smaller scale and much closer to the slums and ghetto. It is a beautiful place during the day, all the shops and stores are pretty much locally owned and the diversity on the sidewalks and streets can be baffling at times.

This is my favorite coffee shop in the whole world, but lately, each time I have been there, someone has been on my mind. There is a guy, let's just call him Justin, that has been hanging out there for the last year or so. He is a homeless kid, but it took me awhile to figure that one out. Now normally I can peg the street hustlers and homeless kids in a heartbeat, but Justin has a way of polishing it up, so as it is hard to tell. He meets his sponsors and tricks at the coffee shop, or near there, and makes his living during the day, hoping to find a place to crash each night. Once I saw him hanging out with Johann, I knew the score. Johann is an older guy who has been around since I was a teenager. He is wealthy and retired and seems to enjoy the "rough trade" as we call it. He IS a nice man, always takes care of his guys and stuff, but still, his presence there also enables their behavior.

So Justin has been around a lot more than usual lately, and I am sure that business is kind of thin in the summer months. He really is an attractive guy, just saying, but he normally sits apart from us all at a table, or stands by himself near the brick alley way with this odd little smile on his face. Now most of the street guys and hustlers I have known and met are brash, loud, smiling boisterous boys. The draw attention to themselves, cut up and have a good time, all while keeping up a brave front. Not so Justin. He is this quiet, striking, reserved young man, who just sits and smiles, till it is time to leave with someone again.

I want to talk to him. I want to hear his story. In some way, eventually, I want to share the story of Gods love for him. I have a burden for his soul and I do not know why.

Now if he has spent any time with Johann, I am sure he knows pieces of my story, of my past and all that I went through growing up in this city. I am sure Johann spins it to sound if I am a rough kid who made good, kind of to inspire Justin to rise above how he is living now. But that is not true, really. Those years ago, at this very coffee shop, doing what he was doing, is where Melissa first was a signpost to me about what God could do in my life.

She pointed me up. She cared for me. She loved me enough as a hurt and broken stranger to share what little truth she did have. She said, "Come and see...come and see, Daemon!" And because of her witness, my life was changed forever.

I hope to see Justin today. I want to say hi. Maybe buy him some coffee and listen. It may cost me something for his time, but isn't that a small price to pay for his soul?