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Giving Thanks!

Today my plan was to sleep in and that’s about it. I didn’t want to do anything even remotely related to Thanksgiving. But, like most days of my life God has other plans for me. I believe He often finds great joy in how much He changed my heart. Seriously, I am not that nice. My plan for my life was to relocate back to LA, start a new band, find a wife, and vacation in Hawaii. Of course, nothing went as planned – I was laid off (again), lost my house to foreclosure and for the most part hit rock bottom (again). I honestly believe if my plan was successful I would not have started InvisiblePeople.tv last November.

Today my plan was to sleep in, which I did but I eventuality I got hungry. Food is such a powerful motivator. Us single people get multiple invites during holidays and I would bet we all pick the one where we feel less awkward. I had several places to go. All great places and all great people and I’m sure wonderful food. But the closest thing I have to family on the Best Coast is my homeless friends so I got in the car and drove to Glendale.

Since I was about 20 minutes late I thought I’d walk in to the shelter and it would be one huge love fest of food and friends. Instead, nothing was going on and it was obvious the ‘guest chef’ who volunteered didn’t show up. OUCH! That meant my ‘family’ was not going to have a Thanksgiving meal and there is no way I could let a face like this not have a holiday meal.

Not all stories end well but today’s did, and so did my story. By all signs I should be homeless myself. My gross income since March 15th has been $1,500. You live on that amount in Los Angeles for 9 months!!! Yet, even though I’m still in crisis, my heart was changed and I focused on helping others. That alone is what I believe made the world of difference in my life.

This has been an amazing year! Probably the most amazing year of my life (so far)! So much happened I’m not sure if I could write it all. There are so many people I have to think who believed in me, loved me, encouraged me and supported me. I am so very grateful to each and every one of you.

I am grateful for all the pain that got me to the point where I would do something to help others, and I am grateful for all of you that are riding along with me because together there are so many more people we need to help.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 7:09 pm and is filed under My Big Mouth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Marianne White

    Mr. Horvath – I was so touched by reading about how you changed adversity into a positive. Sometimes in life we feel like things get so hard, but reading your story really puts things in perspective. It really brings home the fact that most of us are just one paycheck away from being homeless. God bless you for doing what you're doing. Is there a way to make a contribution towards what you are doing?

  • Marianne White

    Mr. Horvath – I was so touched by reading about how you changed adversity into a positive. Sometimes in life we feel like things get so hard, but reading your story really puts things in perspective. It really brings home the fact that most of us are just one paycheck away from being homeless. God bless you for doing what you're doing. Is there a way to make a contribution towards what you are doing?

  • sharonstephens

    Here is the irony — I was a case manager in the homeless community for a long time. My interests have always been in the field of human services. Now I am 69, handicapped and living in my car in Montclair, and was hospitalized for heart problems five times in the last year. I was illegally evicted from my private HUD housing contract when I complained about crime and unsafe living conditions. HUD did nothing to hold the owners of the building accountable, or to protect me from this “without good cause eviction.” I am still trying to get them to listen.

    I am trying to now bring attention to the problem of senior homelessness but having a difficult time with even getting anyone to listen. We, senior citizens, are now called “useless eaters” by many, and with a population of 5 billion on this planet probably not deemed worth “saving.”

    Whew!

  • sharonstephens

    Here is the irony — I was a case manager in the homeless community for a long time. My interests have always been in the field of human services. Now I am 69, handicapped and living in my car in Montclair, and was hospitalized for heart problems five times in the last year. I was illegally evicted from my private HUD housing contract when I complained about crime and unsafe living conditions. HUD did nothing to hold the owners of the building accountable, or to protect me from this “without good cause eviction.” I am still trying to get them to listen.

    I am trying to now bring attention to the problem of senior homelessness but having a difficult time with even getting anyone to listen. We, senior citizens, are now called “useless eaters” by many, and with a population of 5 billion on this planet probably not deemed worth “saving.”

    Whew!