<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[By Donna Lomelino]]></title><description><![CDATA[Inspiring Change Through Storytelling]]></description><link>https://lomelinodonna.wixsite.com/by-donna-lomelino-1/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2026 14:20:20 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.donnalomelino.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Jennifer]]></title><description><![CDATA[Jennifer taught me that danger and legal criteria are not always the same thing. When most people picture someone in crisis, they imagine chaos. Screaming. Violence. Obvious threats. Something dramatic enough that everyone immediately recognizes something is wrong. Jennifer wasn't always like that. Sometimes she was quiet. One day I encountered her standing in the middle of traffic, disconnected from the reality unfolding around her. Cars were moving. People were reacting. The situation felt...]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/jennifer</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a81bc1768f1938b2e2f07ac</guid><category><![CDATA[Street Level]]></category><category><![CDATA[What it Means]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2026 13:33:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_5ea72fe0bb454176952e2a32b1d8d3bf~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Snipers Weren't Looking for Him Tonight]]></title><description><![CDATA[Most people were afraid of him. The women at the shelter were uncomfortable around him. The men kept their distance. Staff often described him as unpredictable. If you only met him briefly, it was easy to understand why. He rarely slept. He paced constantly. His clothes were dirty and worn. His conversations could turn suddenly graphic, often centered around sex, violence, or religion. He laughed at inappropriate moments and seemed to be living in a reality that no one else could see. People...]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/the-snipers-weren-t-looking-for-him-tonight</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a81b406a7a7d1a936d73c6b</guid><category><![CDATA[Street Level]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2026 13:20:38 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_664fef500acd4f8e858b62ad6573929b~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[James: What Most People Don’t See]]></title><description><![CDATA[You can usually tell before anything happens. It’s in the way he’s walking. Not fast. Not slow. Just… locked in. James wasn’t loud. That was the problem. When he wasn’t medicated, he didn’t tell you what was going on inside his head. You had to read it. And if you missed it—you missed it. He was coming toward her. She didn’t see it yet. She was standing near the curb, digging through her bag, halfway turned away from everything that was about to happen. Too still for a street that doesn’t...]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/james-what-most-people-don-t-see</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69f231c70284ed8464df1140</guid><category><![CDATA[Street Level]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:41:30 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_4ddf18efeffc4ba4a3ea91f3ee34f7a6~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_698,h_560,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to Approach Someone on the Street]]></title><description><![CDATA[What matters more than what you say Most people think the hardest part is knowing what to say. It isn’t. It’s knowing how to stay. I once sat down next to someone who had already decided I wasn’t going to help. He didn’t say it directly. He didn’t have to. It was in the way he answered quickly. The way his body stayed angled away. The way every response closed the door just a little faster. “I’m good.” That was enough, technically. No crisis. No request. No reason to push. Most people would...]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/how-to-approach-someone-on-the-street</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ed500104fc81dfe25d56c5</guid><category><![CDATA[Street Level]]></category><category><![CDATA[What it Means]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 01:43:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_d433770de25f400ebcfa1a6bcbc8b0f3~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Letter One: You Think This Is Normal]]></title><description><![CDATA[A conversation I’m still learning how to have. Older Me to Younger Me You learned early how to watch people. Not in an obvious way. Not like someone taught you outright. It was quieter than that. You learned to read the shift in a room. To notice tone. To feel when something was “off” before anyone said a word. And you got good at it. So good, in fact, that you stopped noticing something else entirely. Yourself. I want to tell you something you didn’t know then. The way you learned to...]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/letter-one-you-think-this-is-normal</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ed3a6a42384749035fdef8</guid><category><![CDATA[Quiet Practice]]></category><pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 23:02:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_4a5cdd8ed6a54f2fb67570b3c5c645d5~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[This Was Not Burnout]]></title><description><![CDATA[It wasn’t that I cared too much. It was that I was close enough to feel it. There is a word people use when they see someone in this work start to wear down. Burnout. It sounds clinical. Contained. Manageable. Like something that happens when a person gives too much and forgets to rest. That wasn’t what this was. Burnout implies distance—that the work stayed outside of you long enough to drain you slowly. This was something else. Many people said I was burned out. At one point, I believed...]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/this-was-not-burnout</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ec0faeb502c05c43b4fc3e</guid><category><![CDATA[What it Means]]></category><pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:51:50 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_5dcf5550c6514ee288fe6566289b5f01~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Carrying It Home]]></title><description><![CDATA[Some parts of this work don’t stay where they happened 	There is a cost to this work that does not show up on any report. It is not the obvious moments—the fights, the crises, the long nights—that weigh the heaviest. It is what remains after those moments pass. What settles quietly into the body. What follows you home when the workday ends but the stories do not. I did not understand that at first. 	I believed that if I cared deeply enough, if I stayed grounded enough, if I learned the right...]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/carrying-it-home</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69e92338d06bed7d1a9eb856</guid><category><![CDATA[Quiet Practice]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:44:46 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_66a868f91e6541da80f16fe1586ca02a~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Success Stories That Don’t Look Like Success]]></title><description><![CDATA[Out here, success does not announce itself. It does not arrive with certificates or celebrations. It does not always look like stability, sobriety, or a dramatic turnaround that reassures everyone watching. More often, it   shows up quietly, in ways that are easy to miss if you are only looking for outcomes that fit familiar definitions. 	On the streets, progress is rarely linear. People move forward and backward at the same time. They gain something and lose something else. And sometimes,...]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/success-stories-that-don-t-look-like-success</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69e91ee4b17cf497ceb1a1c7</guid><category><![CDATA[What it Means]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:30:01 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_8f43d30fe1f24beeb04750994cf1f281~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Kindness Is Not the Same as Being Nice]]></title><description><![CDATA[Kindness is often mistaken for something soft. Something agreeable. Something that avoids discomfort. But that’s not what it is. Being nice keeps things smooth. Kindness pays attention. Being nice avoids tension. Kindness stays present inside it. Sometimes kindness looks like patience. Sometimes it looks like silence. Sometimes it looks like saying something that would be easier to leave unsaid. It doesn’t always feel good in the moment. But it leaves something behind. A person who was seen....]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/kindness-is-not-the-same-as-being-nice</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69e8ec0825a9c96f142a5251</guid><category><![CDATA[Quiet Practice]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:42:02 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_f5e1d89039df4bdca61236a2a649321b~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_505,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[When We Mistake Clarity for Capacity]]></title><description><![CDATA[We rely on what we can measure. Can they answer questions?Do they know where they are?Can they hold a conversation? If the answer is yes, we assume something else is true: That they understand what’s happening to them.That they can make decisions in their own best interest.That their refusal is informed. But those are not the same thing. I’ve seen people speak clearly while making choices that were slowly destroying them. Not because they didn’t care. Not because they were stubborn. Because...]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/when-we-mistake-clarity-for-capacity</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69e8eb8d2b64352a7da118dc</guid><category><![CDATA[What it Means]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:40:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_638a7cbfa38546398cf32ab9080505f8~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_512,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[You Don’t Always See It Right Away]]></title><description><![CDATA[By the time you notice something is wrong, it’s usually been wrong for a long time. That’s the part people don’t see. They see the moment. The behavior. The smell. The refusal. They don’t see the slow unraveling that came before it. I’ve learned that most things on the street don’t announce themselves clearly. They don’t show up labeled. They show up sideways—through small things that don’t quite make sense until they do. A person sitting longer than they should. Clothes that don’t match the...]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/you-don-t-always-see-it-right-away</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69e8eb072b64352a7da117e3</guid><category><![CDATA[Street Level]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:38:31 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_1764ebba898343d8a18f24aa91a5be61~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_509,h_401,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Jane ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Photo is AI generated.]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/_jane</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69e8e91a25a9c96f142a4bc4</guid><category><![CDATA[Street Level]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:31:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_03bd4d43d590444aa7d02568b92991f5~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_608,h_571,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Taz]]></title><description><![CDATA[Photo is AI generated.]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/__taz</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69e8e303ab5395dde605f341</guid><category><![CDATA[Street Level]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:23:49 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_be80d574af624dad88ce1acb3964404d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_452,h_436,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[He Said He Was Fine]]></title><description><![CDATA[The system heard compliance. I heard something else. He said he was fine. Not defensive. Not irritated. Just flat. “I’m good.” The kind of answer that closes a conversation before it starts. On paper, that’s enough. Alert. Oriented. Cooperative. Declines services. There’s a box for that. Check it, and you can move on. He was sitting on the edge of a bench, shoulders slightly forward, hands resting on his knees like he was waiting for something. Not restless. Not calm either. Just… paused. I...]]></description><link>https://www.donnalomelino.com/post/he-said-he-was-fine</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ed4d1bb502c05c43b7d83c</guid><pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2020 23:47:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a200f7_7d266917d38041f2bce027c7ffaf0698~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>lomelinodonna</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>