Tax Help for the Homeless

 
   It can be SO difficult to get help that applies when everyone helping you has zero experience in dealing with your unique situation. Worry not, friend, I’ve got you covered on how to file truly and honestly exactly as you are, without all the paperwork you probably don’t have!

I’m not gonna let ya struggle like I did. Hell I ain’t even gonna make ya do a whole lotta reading!
Here’s the resource I used, and below it, a video on how I used it.

TaxSlayer Simply Free - File a Free Federal and State Tax Return!

Feel free to ask any questions you may have here or in the comments on the video!

Boone, North Carolina

 

       This is not the first time I’ve visited, Boone and I doubt it will be the last. To be honest, I do love this town. There are several great restaurants on King Street downtown, and great shopping. But let’s face it, your town has that too. What makes Boone a great destination isn’t what’s on the street, but who.

      This gem can be found riding high on the Bible Belt of the United States. But in spite of that, it’s one of the most progressive populations around. It’s probably due to the amazing college here, that ignorance is so far less rampant than in some of the surrounding areas.  Asheville has long touted such sentiments as ‘Keep Asheville Weird’ but Boone? May just surpass it shortly. Almost none of the bathrooms downtown are gender specific. The only prerequisite to using them is the ability to flush.
     Nestled in the hills of western North Carolina, Boone is home to some pretty amazing characters. The kind of folks that decide, ‘my restaurant will serve food to anyone regardless of what they can afford!’, as Farm Cafe does. I suppose the best way to verbalize it, is that Boone is a place with great humanity.

     I can’t tell you, from my perspective, about all the places I never went inside of. I can tell you that you can get lost inside Timely Treasures antique store for hours if you don’t watch the time. I’m pretty sure it’s in a perrigren loop of its own. That the Mast General Store has nostalgia on tap, and the Dancing Moon has whatever your spirit desires. The Boone Mini Mall has several can’t miss shops as well. Our Daily Bread and Farm Cafe are musts for lunch.

    This town is just friendlier than many of its neighbors here bordering the south. It’s easy to forget entirely about the political climate outside of this place. Recently welcoming an Escape Room, Boone just keeps getting cooler with more to do.

 

How Traveling On Foot Made My Faith Stronger

  

        Faith on the Road

  I've spent the better part of my life as a backpacker, hitch hiking across the United States. I've attended a large number of Rainbow Gatherings, and worked countless small jobs along the way. While at times, I experienced symptoms of homelessness, other times, I experienced things that cannot be bought.    I would not trade my travels for anything.

     I, along with many friends I met along the way, went through intense personal growths during our time traveling and i honestly can't tell you that I would be who I am today had I not spent that time on the road. I volunteered with traveling free food kitchens, I worked for a Gator Farm. Ive climbed too many mountains to count or name. During all that time, for the most part, I kept my faith.

   
      I as well as anyone will tell you that Christianity itself is downright criminal. Responsible for some of the largest massacres in all of history, Christianity as an institution is full on offensive. But this does not mean that I don't believe. I believe in many things.  I believe in today, I believe remotely in tomorrow. I believe in myself, and right now. And most importantly and in relevance to the title, I believe I'll make it ok, and that I've had some serious help along the way. some of this help came from people, and some, from unseen forces that i would be condemned as a crazy woman forever if I gave much time explaining.

                             
  
     Sometimes, you just suddenly know something without knowing. Sometimes, exactly what you need to happen happens just as you're getting ready to think of it. The moments of serendipity were frequent on the road, and it's almost impossible not to believe in something greater than yourself when you're out there, no matter how you choose to define it.

   

    I've found hundreds of bananas, or a 100 dollar bill. I've found friends under bridges, and in high rise condos. I've woken up next to the highway to the most incredible views and I can't help but think that the entire time, I was exactly where I was supposed to be each moment. When i stopped overthinking things, everything i needed came easily and i rarely wanted for anything for long.

      Now that I'm back in a home, raising my family, I need to remember this effortlessness with which my life used to flow, as I'm certain it can still, so long as I don't get in it's way.

Outsourcing God's Labor: Free Food on the Road

     My backpack weighed between 40-60 lbs. Wherever I found safe to sleep was typically about a mile away from any opportunities to make money or food. From the time I woke up every morning, to the time I go to sleep, and beyond, I was working. Fighting for my own survival. Some days were definitely easier than others, but there were no days off.

     Oddly enough, I found groups to volunteer with. Many of us do. I spent my days thinking of others and their needs, rather than just my own. Working with free food kitchens is awesome. It's emotionally rewarding, and it keeps you busy. It gave me community and family at all times, and gave me a purpose greater than my self. 

     While not all homeless people are hopped up on civic duty, it's surprising how many of us were. When our bus rolled in, you fawned over us, giving us everything we needed to feed your town and the next. But...why? Why did the homeless in your area need a fresh faced approachable mascot to donate to, when the need had been there the whole time?

     We are, as a species, lazy. Rather than take on the emotional and physical labor of solving problems ourselves, we outsource our problem solving to God. Here's the kicker, we were already given this job. Praying about it and walking away won't get it done. God isn't going to send superman to fix things for us. He sent us. We are his outsourced labor. 

     So why are we, as a society, leaving the task of crowd sourcing and distributing food security to those experiencing lack themselves? Why can't we, as a nation, be bothered to care in a way that doesn't leave such a deficit that homeless people are picking up the slack?

     So many people want so badly to believe that homeless people are homeless due to their own faults as a way to make us feel safe. So much so that society is projecting it's feelings of self on to the homeless. Victim blaming helps separate the masses from the ideation that it could be anyone. 

      But it doesn't do much else, to demonize victims of class warfare. It doesn't change anything to say that all homeless people are lazy, or on drugs. 

     I've visited a lot of makeshift housing communities, strung along the side of the highway. Many of the inhabitants work during the day, if they can. They make a home in the cluster of woods, with no real walls. They are going to sit down and eat a meal together tonight. Propane stoves when fire has been outlawed. Tarps where they are not permitted tents. 

     They are patriots. Carving out a life worth living where there was none. Fighting for every day freedoms we've all but forgotten we have. 

     And sure, some of them are on drugs. Or alcohol. Because this life has taken so much from them and left them with a hole no one and nothing can fill. A middle class woman in the suburbs somewhere is having a pharmacy for breakfast and no one cares. But a homeless person self medicated and suddenly it's a viable excuse to withhold resource? Yeah ok. 

     Some of my best friends are still or have been homeless. 

     Most of us didn't consider ourselves homeless, because we found homes on the road and with each other. We were at home doing God's work that society refused. Scraping together change to buy coffee cups so we could serve one another as equals.

     Every single day, each of us is given opportunities. Opportunities to change things, however slightly. We are each given chances to pick up some of the slack. Chances to shine, and to do His good work for Him. The question is what are you going to do with yours?


Loading excess gear on to the top of a bus

Writer riding one of these free food kitchen buses.

A coffee station while you wait for food

Bagged feminine hygiene products to give away

A feed we did in Kentucky

Chopping veggies for the soup in the back of the bus/kitchen

How Had I Forgotten?

     The road is not always the kindest of mistresses. Sometimes she's a cold hearted lying cheat. For the most part, however, it is at her breast where I find my home. My peace is here, where anything can happen. There is a limitlessness to this ocean of people.
     I'm forever asked where I'm going, with little more than a shrug for an honest answer, "onward." Where am I going? The man with the plan is the only one with a clue. He's driving this ship, in just along for the ride. You want answers, that's who you gotta ask. I'm not pressing for answers much these days. I'm perfectly content to live on faith. Its just who I am when I'm traveling.
     How had I forgotten? Note to self: Never again remove yourself so fully from who you know you are.

Another Turn of the Wheel

     As I circle around the sun, my learning comes in spiral layers, venturing ever deeper as does my understanding. Lessons from long ago resurface, to be reapplied in new ways. I'm given new uses for old tools....
      Being on the road reminds me of why my soul suffered so while I lived inside, shut away from the world. I crave adventure, and excitement, while simultaneously having an overwhelming need for stability. Maybe I need my own bus, full of art supplies. But I KNOW I need balance. And honesty with myself in order to find and maintain such a thing.
      I'm still not sure what it is that makes me happy. I've visited that place, but I'm not sure I've ever lived there, although I've convinced myself otherwise many times.... How do I define what happiness is? What constitutes such a thing? I need to be part of my community. I need to serve an active role for the benefit of others. I need to have a livelihood to the benefit of myself so I'm not a drain. I need excitement, adventure, and stability.... Highly conflicting things, it would appear. I need a lot more music. To create. To love. To dance. To be free of abuse. I need room to grow. And I want to come home more than to have one. I'll figure it out. If I learn to know myself, I'll recognize the answer when it comes.
    And although I rarely speak of it, I want to serve God in whatever ways I'm called to. But more and more, when I hear the calling, I'm just called to be myself. To forgive myself for what I am, because its what I'm meant to be. To allow myself to be moved to action for His will.  I believe in many things, that can be defined in many ways..... I am a child of the universe.....
       How are we walking each other home when none of us know the way? Pretty amazing, I think. Just follow your feet and trust your faith.

On the road again, store and all

     It's nothing new. It's nothing I haven't done, traveling. But now, balancing my store from the road is an additional element, and that is very, VERY new. We shall soon see how well I walk the narrow slack line life has set before me.
     Life sometimes feels lonely, but in truth, I know ill never be alone. Amazing people surround me as soon as the wrong ones are removed from my life. While I may at times experience homelessness, I've just got too many places to go. Angels are real but they're just regular folks walking around. Unfortunately some folks seem utterly demonic at times too. I thought I could be safe in a house. But it wasn't a home.
     It's never time for giving up but sometimes it IS time for trying something new.
     Will I ever put down roots? Tune out next time for more of this adventure. Pictured: selfie, backpack, my entire store in two bins and two boxes, my window views in the short bus.