Welcome,
thanks for joining me as we take a look at the last few months and things on the horizon, to kick things off - please enjoy, “Going Inward” - one of my favorites so far.

Stayin’ Crafty 🪡

What began a couple months ago has continued to spiral in the best way. As I work across mediums physically and digitally, I go in cycles based on what i’m most excited by. Jumping around keeps it fresh.

Carlos was especially difficult, his fists turned out great… his feet.. look a bit more “homemade” than i’d like - ha! - I had kind of hit a mental wall and had to put him aside for a few weeks, overall very happy with him.

Paper Cuts ✂️ (tryin’ something new)

Speaking of “keepin’ fresh” - started trying something new! While cleanin’ the house I found some construction paper, and channled my inner Henri Matisse (being very generous to myself here haha)

I said this recently, I don’t have a niche - I need to keep bouncing around to keep the stimulation fresh - I embrace a loose and primitive style. Looks like a child did that. Yeah, I hear that from time-to-time. The older I get, the less defensive I am to hear this. Like c’mon man… i’m doin’ my thing - this is how it comes out of me.

A Gallery for Ants?! (Makin’ Prints")

Sometimes it feels like i’m a freight train onto my next vignette. Rarely, previously shared work gets revisited - and after a couple weeks, it feels like they’re just forgotten about. Something I’m starting to create (at least for myself) are these 4x6” prints within a 5x7” matte frame. I’m thrilled to hold my work in some capacity. Also, embossing is incredibly satisfying!

Artist Residency w/ Google

I was recently invited to join a group of 10 creative technologists for a 6-week Artist Residency with Google - I said hell yeah, I’d love to. So far, it’s been incredible.

If you’re an artist/creative you understand that the PROCESS is the experience, that is the reward - as an outcome, you have something to share - it’s that process that makes art valuable/interesting/personal and worth sharing -

Though I’ve never been one for popularity competitions, and if you’re only interested in certain mediums i’m exploring… from how I see it, it’s my mind that unifies my work, all of this is interconnected.

One area i’m particularly excited about is motion transfer/ using video as reference for “animation”. This is motion reference transferred onto our ladybug friend. My recorded motion drifts a bit - doesn’t fully adhere - and Frank’s movement reads more like an “idea” of him than a direct reference. Still, I’m genuinely excited by this tech. I’m not waiting around for examples of what’s possible - I’m in it, experimenting.

I’m very proud of myself, and the progress since the Spring Quarterly - I dont have a niche, I have a ton of interests that fall under the “creative” umbrella. I go in cycles until I burn myself out. When you feel that excitement in your chest and it’s all consuming, some of you’ve felt it… drawing, poeming, needle-felting, and making my films and vignettes. I love it all.

I hope you can feel how much fun i’m having, this humming bird was inspired by the stream we visit, I was wearing my bright red sweater with the bee on it. This humming bird came up so close to us it was incredible. Had to capture this.

I appreciate those who’ve kept an open mind, given me the benefit of the doubt - and have taken a deeper look at what i’m doing and recognize I have layers as a creative and what i’m creating something different, even special to some. 🙏💛

To wrap this section up, some stills from my upcoming film.
I can’t wait to show you what i’m cookin’ with access to these latest models.
🤐👇 Coming early August.

I’m stoked to be jamming with the team at Google for a few weeks, + contribute my voice in shaping the future of where these capabilities are headed for creative control.

Studio Heartfelt Course | An Experiment

In my younger years, I would’ve just said I want to stay living under my rock, creating my work in peace. I’ll never stop creating, that’s who I am. But my focus is broadening.

Over the past month I’ve been showing my bud, Melissa aka The Sleepy Wildflower, the ropes on my process to amplify her awesome character, Barb, into her own little world- I’m super thankful for her feedback as I continue developing the Studio Heartfelt Course and helping me think through how to better break this process down.

If you’re unfamiliar with Melissa - definitely check out her work, She is an illustrator, needle-felter and totally hilarious. Do yourself a favor and follow Barb’s adventures in her “Midlife & Pancakes” series! 💙🥞

I had initially envisioned recording the entire end-to-end process, I’m glad I didn’t. I finding my “teaching” style - which is really more akin to a creative partner than a teacher… maybe i’m creating a “Creative Club” of sorts - if you’ve been with me for a bit, you know i’m figuring this all out in real-time.

I receive quite a bit of outreach from folks with ideas, stories, characters et cetera.

Still a lot of work to be done here, stay tuned! I imagine working with a few more folks 1:1 before opening this up more broadly. if you’re particular excited, message me.

Heartfelt Shop moved to Etsy 😅

If you'd like to support, Vist the shop :)

Everything is sold out in the shop, I kid…. but we got 5 sales! After ping-ponging on where to host the shop and running into all sorts of international shipping issues, The shop has moved to Etsy. Things have definitely slowed, haha - I may be making these for myself.

Why put energy into this?

hard to explain haha, I love it, I have to.

Some WAH WAH Updates 🫠

#1 - I had requested participation in voting which character//design to get a quote on // exploring manufacturing of figures. There was great response, and fun fact; “Alto” the cloud won.

While things quickly got murky/overwhelming and a bit discouraging in this process - its on pause unless there is a big ol’ gust of wind to revive it. I just couldn’t figure it out right now. I don’t mean to ask for participation and then have this be the outcome. I’m sorry guys.

#2 - Needle-felt Commissions are closed, while this was sparked by my desire, and the excitement/interest from others, its proved to be just too laborious for what I would need to charge for it to be mutual on both sides. Some were given to loving homes haha, I’m not sure i’ve been a businessman in any past life. 😆

If I figure out how to clone myself, I will provide an update. 🥲

Best Viewed at a Slower Pace 🐌

I love the constraints of the 6-panel vignette series. It just enough to tell a little story and explore an idea. I look forward to exploring some of these ideas even further in future vignettes / short films - Here’s a selection of some favorites vignettes since the last quarterly

“King of the Castle”

“Earth Day, Every Day”

”Panini // Saturn’s Debut”

”Sandwich Heist”

”Wave Chaser”

”Snorkelbee”

”A Little Lost Together”

Animated Vignettes

”Wind for your Sail”

”Seein’ What Sticks” 🍝

”An Oolong Night”

If you’d like to see more,
I’m building a home for this work over here
Visit StudioHeartfelt.com

Do you have a favorite vignette or character? 🌸

Thanks for being here and sharing your thoughts in the comments.
If you enjoyed this, consider restacking for reach.

much love, atom ✌️

Recent Posts.

What started off as a 6 panel vignette turned into a short animated sequence! This one was tough to narrow down, The vignettes are best with fewer characters - I found myself wanting to dig into each of these moments for more than just a single panel :)

Typically these vignettes bloom as a simple idea, and I just follow the kernels!

“I should totally make one of the characters needle-felting a cloud - ah and the cloud should be hanging out watching him - Winston! our pink yeti - he’d be great.

“It’s been a minute since we’ve seen The Water Man, he should be watering flowers (duh)”

“I love our new blue star guy (name tbd!) - was feeling like one of my favorites, Otis (the redish orange dog) had been neglected lately haha - he should be painting the star playing a guitar”

“And our new blue dog (name also tbd haha) - Have we had him and Otis in a shot yet? nah lets do that! - we’ll have him sketching.. the Water Man watering the flowers”

My go-to setting is a forrest/garden inspired by Japanese foliage, I just love the feeling and associations I have with Japan(town ha!) from childhood. And the weeping willows are just too nostalgic not to include.

Creative Courage turned into a short visual story of friends enjoying the beautiful forrest day together, being creative. A small caterpillar in the cherry blossom tree sees all this creativity happening around him and wants to join in.

I prefer the framing “creative” over “making art” or “being artistic” - I know this is nitpicky semantics, but my whole approach to making is very very organic, and i’m certainly not a “technically” good artist - oop! there we go “artist” - this is why I don’t like this label - it has baggage - art feels like it’s about being “good” - where being creative is about imagination vs how something is rendered. gettin rambley.. I’m a ramblin’ rose baby!

Once I had the initial character blocking / activities they’d be doing - I followed the kernel to the next idea.

“Ah! What if there is a little story within our story! Let’s have a caterpillar also making art up in the tree - wait wait, no - he’ll first get inspired by seeing some friends below making - yes! He’ll come back into frame with a little red beret / palette and canvas - perfect.”

I had also considered a spider, butterfly and ladybug - it was a quick shot, but if you happen to catch our little Lady Bug taking little notes up in the weeping willow tree. I don’t know why, but I think he turned out so funny - there’s something a little suspicious about this fella.

I could totally see him being an antagonist to our bee trio :)

I’m absolutely loving exploring the stories within our stories lately, more insert shots and environment b-roll. Also just locking in my video editing style more each month!

I get so much inspiration from nature, it’s endless. Maybe you’ve seen some of the nature walks i’ve been sharing lately. Frank and I start our day on the trail each morning. Slowing things down, observing the little things - it really feeds my creativity.

So so many “characters” out there enjoying there day. Some days i’m in a slump and just not feeling it, the trail usually pulls me out of that.

Ways to Support Studio Heartfelt 🌸

Buy me a coffee

Visit the Shop

Gettin’ Crafty

As many of you know, I am a Visual Storyteller & Illustrator. I’ve been taking my hand drawn illustrations and using Nano Banana to turn them into “felt” looking characters.

After months of designing and working with these digital characters, in the back of my mind - a little itch began to appear.

I want to hold these characters, I want to feel how soft they are! 2 weeks ago I decided to order some needles and material and jump in head first.

I am having so much fun and making a ton of mistakes along the way. I’m not one for tutorials haha, i’m far too stubborn and learn best from experience.

What’s awesome about physical figures, is I’m able to photograph them and use them as reference to combine them in scenes with the digitally created characters that are based on my original character designs.👇

Illustrating “Felt” Characters + Nano Banana

There’s been a lot of new faces here lately, welcome! I wanted to include this clip to show how I make the digital felt characters - as I recognize it might be a bit confusing that i’m now mixing physical creations with the nano banana-based characters.

I’m very proud of my progress so far in making the physical characters, but I want people to understand my process is rooted in drawing - and I’m not shying away from how i’m embracing emerging technologies and amplifying my artwork with GenAI - but it could partially misrepresent the work if you’re only seeing the hand made needle-felted work i’ve been sharing // under the impression that I’ve hand-crafted all of these characters.

A Blueberry for Theo 🫐

I am so very grateful for the opportunity to design this Blueberry scene to bring a bit of comfort to a youngster during his upcoming bike-arm prosthetic fitting.

This started off as just the Blueberry, and naturally I got carried away haha

Was so cool bringing Theo’s Mother, - into the creative process as we selected the palette for the flowers. Though, a flower can get lonely without a bee 😆🌸🐝 and that tall grass…. just needed a 🐞.

Our Blueberry and Teapot are attached with a small magnet on their grass mound base - everything else is fixed in place.

While ya’ll have seen a few peeks at our micro bee, I wanted to ensure I had the family’s permission before sharing this fella.

This has got to be my most meaningful work thus far. This is purposeful on a new level and I’m hopeful to create more of these custom figures.

If you’d like to commission a figure,

or create something together,
you can start the conversation here:
https://www.studioheartfelt.com/commission

Heartfelt Shop 🚀

If you'd like to support, Vist the shop :)

I’m having a blast creating designs for the Studio Heartfelt shop. I don’t particularly love the business model of Substack for what I’m doing.

If you’d like to support my little studio without yet another subscription, get ya self a tee :) - everything adds up and it really helps right now as I’m kicking things off.

Shout out to my proud Ma rockin’ the embroidered sweatshirt 🌸

🥜 Gallery Thoughts on Process

These were some rambles on creativity and process that came out as I was filming a tutorial for something upcoming I’m putting together for the Heartfelt site - totally on the fly while waiting on a long video render - my 2 cents, that felt needed to be said ❤️ -

Detach, and just let it come out, become a spectator. Get excited, make something! if things don’t turn out like we imagined, it’s all good - we are going to make sooo much more art.

So much more to dig into here….

Best Viewed at a Slower Pace 🐌

I’ve been absolutely loving the vignette series. These are such a great way to explore ideas before committing to animation. While I romanticize about being a cartoonist illustrating sunday funny’s - I think I was born in the wrong decade for that!

The vignettes have been a very nice contrast to the animated work - which thus far has been music-driven, which kind of dictates a pacing.

“Please enjoy this 6 panel vignette • best viewed at a slower pace 🐌” has been included with all the vignettes as reminder to create space to immerse yourself in these. They really can be little stories when viewed at a slower pace. ANDDD some of them work forwards and backwards :)

Here’s a selection of some favorites:

“Cold Day // Crisp Veggies”

“Welcome to Earth // You Are Loved”

”Every 60 Years // Fire Horse”

”Cup Vs. Cold”

”Borrowed Light”

”A Quiet, Porcelain Life”

Animated Vignettes

”Space Brunch 🧇”

creating the actual images is a different workflow entirely - the clip below is a look at how the animated clips are produced in a platform called FLORA. Interpolation is created by linking nodes between the “start” and “end” images, generating a short animated clip. These clips are then chopped up in video editing software to form a longer sequence.

this aspect ratio is kinda funny 👇 - maybe go full screen ;)

”Never Too Busy For A Friend”

fun fact: i mistakenly drew these guys with green tops - only to realize when posting and using a 🫐 emoji - and yeah duh - blueberries don’t have leaves - I should consider perhaps looking at photo reference - but - ay! that’s art baby! 😆🎨💥

If you’d like to see more,
I’m building a home for this work over here
Visit StudioHeartfelt.com

Do you have a favorite vignette or character? 🌸

Thanks for being here and sharing your thoughts in the comments.
If you enjoyed this, consider restacking for reach.

much love, atom ✌️

Yo! welcome to my first post showing a small peek behind the scenes of how I create - hope you enjoy.

Don’t think too much / Clear the mind

Just draw… stories will emerge more often than not.

While I typically finish / color in Procreate (love those brushes) - I prefer starting line work in an iPad app called “Concepts” (awful name for SEO!) - it’s vector based and easier to manipulate than drawing in raster.

If I do a sketch on paper while chillin on the couch - I can also just bring that in and use the iPad almost like glorified tracing paper.

Fwiw, I recommend the 3rd party “paper” textures you can adhere to your screen so it doesn’t feel like your drawing on glass.

Walk the Dog & Reflect

Walking is essential to my process. The best ideas & stories arrive while on the move - & when the lines just aren’t flowing together- roaming with 👆 Frank always gets the circuits sparking, clearing the mind - noticing what’s showing up. During the time of writing “Every Night I Leave My Body” I was thinking a bit existentially (see next section) - And as for character inspiration - look no further than Frank himself - we’ll get to that in a bit though.

Reflections & Poem Context

From my original post / time of writing this poem, May 2025

Over the past weeks i’ve been sharing little pieces of my story and perspective, it’s been a really difficult year with a lot of uncertainty and not much of a light on the horizon but i’m holding a candle - it’s heavy moments in life that make me question -

What’s this all about?

What am I doing on this planet?

What even am I?

Why am I here? or rather -

why did my consciousness come here?

What is my purpose? is purpose real?

…or are there just lessons. Teachings that may be unclear, but designed specifically to provide an opportunity to grow. The real growth is definitely uncomfortable, anyways hopefully you’re with me - i’m not a guru…

We’re living in some wild times globally, i’ll leave it at that. It’s easy to lose your grip on the world more so than ever. So in a very, on-brand, rambly way - that’s my way of saying I want to believe that everything is working out how it’s supposed to for my life’s path. I want to believe I’m on the right path - wherever this path is going.

Draft & Refine

Figma is where I draft the story - working the words of the poem til they flow - the story part is pretty easy - but getting it to flow without feeling like a forced rhyme has been the biggest challenge - I make tons and tons of duplicates as I refine.

Only 1-2 poems of my poems STARTED with words.

Illustration > Felt Figure

Using Google’s Nano Banana I can adapt my 2D Illustration into a new material and three-dimensional form. I ended up removing the spiraling cosmic energy coming from his hat (that I had in the original illustration) - the results were no good - and was okay abandoning it for the short film.

From there I can begin making modifications by directing the model with specific visual direction - i.e. create a window behind the character, make it night time, add more static to the tv screen -

I’m jumping ahead a bit here - and not showing the bogus or misunderstood results - those are kind of entertaining but not usable for the project ☺️ - its a little bit of a slot machine - though, stabilizing month over month - which at the end of the day means more creative control without the wrestling.

Visualizing the Shots

As for conceptualizing the visuals to accompany the story - I wanted to capture the feeling of the spirit adopting the human shell and a montage of him experiencing life aka “the lessons that can’t be studied, but must be deeply felt” - having an opportunity to come to earth is a blessing. The trials we experience are required for the spirit to grow and reach an understanding that only experience provides. It’s tough being a human, we live in a stressful place.

As this has been a time in my life with so much shifting, it’s required a mental shift from, why is this happening to me? to I’m supposed to have this experience for some reason.

The montage were moments I had top of mind, some of the shared rights of passage:

• Birth / taking on the human form

• The first day of school

• Making friends

• Having a crush

• Learning to ride a bike

• Getting married

• Losing a loved one

• Having a family

• Lifelong friends

Expanding the Cast

You may have noticed some new characters introduced for this project! Inspiration is everywhere, we love our dog Frank so much. And, depending on his haircut he can look like a completely different dog - the pink yeti is based on Frank haha - 👇

The Little Details

This clip shows the transformation of a character drawn by hand and converted into into felt form (not shown here) - and brought back onto the iPad to control his expressions - this is essential to maintain the feeling between mediums :)

Combining Models & Iterating

Showing an overview of the FLORA workspace where I typically explore multiple shot variations along the way, grouping them into small clusters - still frames on the left, video on the right. Refining the prompt and swapping between models until the shot is achieved. Though for this short, Kling 01 was used for all but 2–3 shots.

I mainly utilize Google’s Nano Banana for image - Kling 01 & Seedance Pro are my go-to for video. If i’m speaking an alien language and your just here for the ride and curious - feel free to ask any questions - I know this may be new for some folks out there.

Art Imitates Life

A fun little easter Egg - I actually did propose at the Palace of Versailles :)

“Water Man” cameo and of course our “Cookie Fortune” Yeti is featured throughout.

Using the Red Robot Boy as the base - I created a female & child character needed for this story - so much photoshopping and wrestling in this stage - the model always wants to make the cone hat like a cone HEAD - which is not the look.

Poem as Lyrics

Creating the music for these projects comes from a platform called SUNO. You can see on the right handside where i’ve pasted my poem as “lyrics” - above that is a description of the vibe, the more details in there the better! i.e. the more creative control. Funny enough - unintentionally the poems work well as songs as they already have a rhythmic flow.

I’ve had some compliments on the music or singing from some folks, and thanks! Though that comes down to luck, perseverance and curation/taste. I tried about 70 variations ranging in different styles to find the mood that felt correct for this piece 👇

Don’t settle! I believe that’s going to be the biggest differentiator when using these tools - its super easy to make something that is a solid “B” - but I know when I’ve hit it when I keep coming back to a version and WANT to listen to it.

Here was an unused contender, selecting the music is crucial as it changes the vibe of the project so much (duh!) -

While SUNO works really well, and practical for these projects - these tools are also being misused - I hear stuff on Spotify/YouTube Music that I’m 90% is SUNO - which is really lame for a music streaming platform. Finding myself listening to Marvin Gaye this week haha - I know he’s legit.

The Elephant

Let’s talk about the elephant for a moment- an unavoidable part of the conversation with this emerging technology - I hope from this breakdown how much intention and soul went into making this. It’s enabling me to go beyond anything I ever could’ve imagined in the past - as in - not taking a shortcut towards my illustration craft - but unlocking a medium of “felt” characters in a homage to hand made stop-motion animation - that literally just wouldn’t be possible for me as an individual to make this otherwise - i.e. it wouldn’t exist - it’d be impossible - uh oh… feeling rambly - lets wrap this up.

Chopping & Arranging

Once we have our music and all of the clips we need for our story - we bring them into our video editing software - lately I’ve been using Capcut - but iMovie works too if that’s what you have. This is actually one of my favorite parts, playing with the arrangement, determing the pacing / how long shots hang for - it defines the project. You’ve seen those horror movie trailers re-chopped like they are comedy movies? - to say - editing/assembling is where the project becomes real.

Typically working parallel to the story, I’ll populate the timeline as shots come out of FLORA - you saw how busy the canvas was in that workspace - once I have a usable shot- I’ll export it - add it to the timeline and bounce back to FLORA.

In closing…

A Tribute to my Nana

My lovely Nana passed onto the other side this year. She was a foundational pillar in my life and an endless source of love and encouragement. I captured our “goodbye” reflected in this shot. She touched everyone she came into contact and had a way of making you feel like the center of the universe. She loved watching a little bird visit outside her window, she called him Charlie. Love you Nana, I know you’re with me.

That’s a wrap 2025 ✌️

Thanks for hanging til the end.
It’s always fun hearing your thoughts/questions and reflections in the comments!

much love,

atom

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Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving with those you love.

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He stepped through the gate where the fortunes were made,
Cracked open a cookie - confused, but he stayed.
“Your life will be grand!” the first one proclaimed -
But he wanted specifics, not something so vague.

“Adventure awaits!” said another with flair.
“Love’s just around corners, look out if you dare.”
“Change is your friend.” - “Your stars are aligned.”
But none of them told him the place or a time.

“We don’t know your future,” one fortune confessed.
“It’s meant to be fun - we just sort of guess.”
Still he opened and read, as time slipped away,
‘Til his hair had turned silver, and his cane led the way.
The last one he held refused to unfold -
It curled in his palm, a secret gone cold:

“You asked every cookie what life had to say -
But life doesn’t wait… and yours faded away.
The answer you sought was in days that you spent,
Asking about your life - but it came, and it went.”

He stared at the fortune, then let it fall down,
Exited the factory, and walked out of town.
No drumroll. No spotlight. No grand final scene -
Just a boy who grew old, in a world he’d not seen.

The boy finds the fortune cookie factory by accident. At first, it’s kind of fun - these little slips of wisdom feel like they’re guiding him somewhere. But soon, he’s hooked. He keeps opening one more cookie, hoping the next one will finally tell him the secret to life. In his search for shortcuts, he misses actually living.

I’m standing at a crossroad in life, and I want answers. That’s just not how the earth game works…feeling stuck, looking for glimmers on the horizon, asking friends for their perspective, throwing questions at robots hoping to get a grip on where the world is heading.

Read more

Every night I leave my body - don’t need it where I go,
Back to where I came from, before this earthly show.

Before I had a name or face, or any kind of form,
I floated through the cosmos - quiet, safe, and warm.

I heard about a place, where spirits go to grow,
To stub their toes, to fall in love, to learn what they don’t know.

These lessons can’t be studied - they must be deeply felt,
So my spirit visits Earth, to adopt a human shell.

Collecting little moments - wisdom from Earth’s scars,
Every night returning home, reporting to the stars.

Earth’s teachings can be unkind, but trust - they’re not by chance,
Each trial has been designed for the spirit to advance.

Over the past weeks i’ve been sharing little pieces of my story and perspective, it’s been a really difficult year with a lot of uncertainty and not much of a light on the horizon but i’m holding a candle - it’s heavy moments in life that make me question -

What’s this all about?
What am I doing on this planet?
What even am I?
Why am I here? or rather -
why did my consciousness come here?
What is my purpose? is purpose real?

Read more

The water man glugged and sloshed as he walked,
Spotting dead flowers, he suddenly stopped.
From his fingertips, droplets would fall,
Colors returned and stems grew tall.

Along buzzed a bee, with gold fuzzy wings,
"Why give your water to those dried up things? -
What about you? Won't you be empty?”,
The water man just smirked, “Don’t trip, there’s plenty”

"I have more than I need," through a gurgle he said,
"When others are thirsty, why keep it instead?,
The rain will return, and I’ll refill once again,
There's enough for the flowers, you & I - my friend."

"But still..." said the bee, collecting pollen with speed,
"To give away what you have - feels so strange to me."
"What’s strange is…," the waterman said with a wink,
“Having enough and looking past those who need.”

As i’ve shared in recent posts, I’ve been laid off during the wave that hit tech, and were blowing through our savings as I bounce between inconsistent freelance work.

However, all things considered - I have everything I need.

My Wife. My Dog. My Pen & Paper.

Yes, our “lifestyle” is on a budget these days, and relocating seems inevitable - but man, there is so much beauty and much to be thankful for in my life. I recently lost someone very close to me, one of the most important figures in my life - the gravity of these moments forces me to zoom out and ask - what really even matters? where is my energy going? and most importantly… what do I stand for?

A recent interaction with a man and a child in the grocery store parking lot has left me with a heartache. As he approached, I saw a human invisible to others passing. We made eye contact and I felt his pain - I gave him what I had on me (again, I’m not in a position to be giving away money) $12 - not gonna break the bank in my life… The next moment was unexpectedly sweet yet heart wrenching as he nearly cried and we shook hands. And while that’s a mere band-aid… $12 isn’t going to change his life - but I saw how much he needed it just in his response. I hope he and his kid bought a sandwich and got some (momentary) relief from the pain of an empty belly.

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