I thought this was blog worthy, maybe not to anyone else but Gabrielle house and fellow Catholic Workers, but still blog worthy. Last night we hit the dumpster diving jackpot at Trader Joe’s. There were bags and bags of food sitting in shopping carts next to the dumpster. All the bar codes were scratched so we knew it was trash and it was all packaged food. We got tons of edamame, turkey, fancy breads and cheese, some tofu salads, some bananas, and some salads. It was great. Too bad Trader Joe’s is on the other side of the city. So if anyone is in the area, come over for Community dinner and we will have a feast off of society’s trash.
“Praise Him under open skies” November 13, 2008
I had off work on Tuesday for Veteran’s day and I must say it was the best day I have had in a long time. I took Sarah to work around 10 and then headed off to Charlottesville’s and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The plan was to pick up a bagel from Bodo’s Bagels and then find a trail to hike so that I could have a picnic lunch and read Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamont. So I found my trail and I ate my lunch. Then I headed back into town to look in the shops. I found a great bead shop and spent too much money on beads and 2 beading magazines. Down town there was a huge chalkboard that had the 1st amendment etched on it, you know, the one about freedom of speech. There was chalk for people to write whatever they would like on the board. My personal favorite was “Jesus is coming back, and this time he is kicking ass.”
After walking around town a bit I got back in the car and headed to the Blue Ridge Parkway to look at all the fall colors and find a nice trail to hike. I must have hiked the steepest trail on the whole freakin’ parkway. A lady who was walking down gave me her walking stick as I was walking up. I must have looked like I was dying or something. It was worth it though, all I had to do was walk and contemplate the trees if I wanted. I didn’t have to think about anything I didn’t want to think about or do anything I didn’t want to do. It was really nice just hanging out with myself.
The day ended with community dinner and some wine with Matthew, Sarah and Matthew’s friend Artijom who is from Latvia which is in the North East part of Europe between Estonia and Lithuania.
Last night was also a good time with community, we had an impromptu dance party.
Thoughts November 2, 2008
A recent post to found magazines website was a card someone found that simply said “we are here to create heaven on earth” It just made me think about how Gabriel House fits into the grand scheme of life and this neighborhood and how we can help each other along in this life. I hope God looks down on us and sees that we are trying to create heaven on earth. It may look like a crazy way of doing it, but it’s real and it’s life, however crazy it may be. I sometimes wonder if I am any good at this creating heaven on earth, because of course I have no real idea what heaven may be, only hopeful guesses. There is also no real gauge to how much good being here is doing. Its hard to step back and see since we are in amongst life every day, living and waking to spread some sort of version of heaven. I guess we can only hope we treat each person we meet with kindness and love.
Today is All Saints Day and the sermon in church touched on how we are all saints, no matter what we did Saturday night. It always makes me uncomfortable when people tell me living here at Gabriel House is a great thing and the person tells me they wish they could do “something like this.” The truth is they can and it doesn’t matter where you are. The reason they can is because it’s just life. It may look a little different and feel a little different but it’s just life. I’m just trying to be a friend and a neighbor. I am just trying to see injustices and do my part to reverse and change them.
Something that was pretty convicting to me in the sermon was Reverend Washington’s mention of children and how it is everyone’s job, not just a child’s family, to raise that child to be hope in this world, and to be the saint that they are and to see hope in this world . Often times I say to myself I don’t know how Lonnie and his daughters do what they do, taking care of so many kids 24/7 and I guess you do what you gotta do but they are all better people than I. I find myself coming home from work and not feeling like being around more children since I work with kids most of the day, so I go to my room for some quiet. Today’s sermon made me think though, am really just shirking a responsibility I have to love on those kids? Is it selfish of me to say I can choose not to be in amongst the chaos, because really it is beautiful and it is me who is missing out when I do this. I praise God for people in my life that I learn from and help me re-examine my priorities. I thank God that I can’t do this on my own. I thank God for community, friends and family.
