Скачать с ютуб How a Chicago fruit vendor escaped homelessness в хорошем качестве

How a Chicago fruit vendor escaped homelessness

We’ve entered the coldest, darkest season of the year.  It’s easy to feel tired, lethargic and cranky.    That’s what makes Steven Blake so special – he doesn’t take the easy path. Steven is one of those people who reminds you what’s so special about Chicago.    He stands every morning alongside one of the bridges over the Chicago River selling fresh fruit and shouting, “Good morning!” to crabby commuters with a smile of pure joy. It’s enough to soften even the hardest hearts.   What people don’t realize about Steven is what he’s overcome: Homelessness, illness, joblessness. When he didn’t have a place to live, he often crashed right around the corner from where he sells his fruit today.   It is difficult to have hope in these circumstances. But his fruit stand provided the income Steven needed to get off the streets.   Hope is a choice. Steven makes it every morning when he goes out to work selling healthy food. It bolsters his dream of turning his cart into a fully fledged business that’ll lift up others who find themselves in the kinds of circumstances he’s faced before.    He doesn’t consider what he does “work”: It’s a labor of love, a privilege to be able to bring a smile to absolute strangers who have one thing in common with him: They’re Chicagoans, too.    “We’re all here for a limited time,” Steven said. “So I always want to present myself to other people with a smile. Everyone has something going on, but that one smile, that one conversation could be the one that changes them for the better.”   “You can’t help but be happy that you have another chance to help people.”    As we enter a new year, let’s do so with love, with hope, with the kind of optimism that makes you realize our state’s biggest problems are fixable. Like Steven.