broccoli, bryant street, and miracles

Tricia is the most amazing person when it comes to starting projects in our community. Whether it's a rummage sale for Haiti or composting or our beautiful garden. She also happens to be the most amazing person when it comes to conning me into supporting her projects.

Particularly the garden.

With it's broccoli, rosemary, raspberries, perennials, and compost box, our garden has become the most beautiful place in the world.

I never knew that coming home from work and noticing how much taller the broccoli plants are would bring so much joy to my heart.

I also didn't know that our garden would be the means to foster relationships with our neighbors on Bryant Street (a random assortment of life-long DC residents, world bank employees, young families with small children, Capitol interns, drug dealers, former non-profit directors, and Howard University students.)

I didn't know that Paul, our next door neighbor who is sometimes outside at 7:45 in the morning drinking a 40, would diligently water our garden because we don't have a hose. (Part of the reason I became a Redskins fan is so that I always have something to talk to Paul about. Yesterday, he called me "shorty." I think that means we've bonded.)

I didn't know that Frankie Dye (self-described, "Dye, as in, to impregnate with color")would wander out of his house while Tricia and I were planting to come over and weed with us.

I didn't know that Rick and Paul (who each live on opposite sides of our house, and also happen to play this game where they call for eachother whenever pretty girls walk down the street)would feel compelled to sit on our front steps and give Tricia and I a lesson in theology.

I didn't know that Frankie was paying attention to what I was saying while he was weeding and I mentioned that I worked at SOME.

I definitely didn't know that one afternoon he would come knocking on my front door and ask me to come over to his house to talk to a woman who's been sleeping on his couch about getting connected to the services at SOME.

I often feel incompetent at work. Underqualified and inexperienced. This woman, who I was supposed to be helping, actually ended up helping me.

After listening to this woman's story and giving her my contact information at work, I realized that I AM underqualified and inexperienced, but I'm NOT incompetent.

She talked and I listened.

She cried.

Then, she gave me a hug.

I didn't really help her at all.

She helped me recognize my own competence.

All because of Tricia's projects, and our beautiful, life-giving graden.

The joys of community, and why I'm doing it all over again

1. Because there are so many other girls to share clothes with.

2. Because there is always something silly to get conned into doing, like composting or running barefoot through the city or going to a karaoke bar.

3. Because there is a big table in the dining room that six people who were strangers eight months ago, now sit around sharing stories, tears, laughs, and pieces of themselves.

4. Because Jordan will catch up with me on his bike on the way home from work and stop to walk with me.

5. Because Lucas invites me along to partake in his busy social life since I don't have one.

6. Because Kierstin and I always have similar stories to share about work.

7. Because Tricia pokes her head into mine and Kristina's room before she goes to bed asking what we are doing since she gets lonely in her penthouse.

8. Because Kristina and I share a room, and sometimes we laugh, and sometimes we cry, and sometimes we cuddle, and sometimes we dance.

9. Because dinner tastes better when it's made from scratch and with love.

10. Because books are better when you live with other people who like to read and you can swap them and talk about how much you love them.

11. Because life and love are more fulfilling experiences when you get to share them with other people.

beverage wisdom

It's funny how when you least expect it you get answers to questions you didn't even know you were asking.

The inside label of my "Honest Ade Pomegranate Blue" flavored water this morning read as follows:

"We must be willing to let go of the life we've planned to have the life that is waiting for us." -E.M. Forster

"My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together." Bishop Desmond Tutu

There was a baptism Sunday morning at St. Al's. Not just any baptism. The most beautiful baptism I have ever seen.

It wasn't just beautiful because this baby was adopted.

It wasn't just beautiful because everyone could see how much the parents loved eachother and their son.

It wasn't just beautiful because the mother was Muslim and fully in support of a Catholic baptism, or because her two Muslim sisters and mother were also present.

It was beautiful because the visiting Franciscan priest, welcomed these four Muslim women, thanked them for participating in the ceremony, and spoke about how Islam was an influential part of the life of St. Frances of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order of priests.

And, it was beautiful because he asked the parents to raise their son with a Christian and an Islam influence in order to help repair the brokenness that exists between these two faith traditions.

Peggy Noonan of the Wallstreet Journal on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church

There are three great groups of victims in this story. The first and most obvious, the children who were abused, who trusted, were preyed upon and bear the burden through life. The second group is the good priests and good nuns, the great leaders of the church in the day to day, who save the poor, teach the immigrant, and, literally, save lives. They have been stigmatized when they deserve to be lionized. And the third group is the Catholics in the pews—the heroic Catholics of America and now Europe, the hardy souls who in spite of what has been done to their church are still there, still making parish life possible, who hold high the flag, their faith unshaken. No one thanks those Catholics, sees their heroism, respects their patience and fidelity. The world thinks they're stupid. They are not stupid, and with their prayers they keep the world going, and the old church too.

After 8 months, I finally understand

Today it hit me.

I finally understand.

Not that I didn't understand before.

But, I get it now.

I finally, truly, get it.

I was reading while I walked to Easter mass this morning. (By the way, it could not have been a more beautiful Easter Sunday)

And as I was walking and reading I heard someone call out to me, "Hey young lady! What ARE you doing??"

When I looked up I saw two clients waving at me from down the block.

These two particular clients came to SOME several months ago for addictions treatment, dissheveled and emaciated. They have both gone through the 90-day treatment program in West Virginia and are currently in the intensive outpatient program and attending relapse prevention groups.

As I stood there talking to them, I saw that their cheeks were no longer sunken, their smiles stretched from ear to ear, and their eyes were lit up.

This morning, I discovered what the miracle of Easter, and the miracle of the opportunity to serve as a Jesuit Volunteer really is. It's about witnessing the resurrection of the body, firsthand, among the people of God.

The other miracle is that I just happened to be wearing waterproof mascara and sunglasses.

Spring comes after winter for the right reason.

I've never experienced spring the way I have this year.

Winter exists so that spring can be experienced fully.

I look forward to walking to work in the morning, with my coffee in hand.

Everyone is smiling because the snow has melted.

With my chacos on, the beginnings of a tan on my shoulders, the flowers blossoming a little more each day, and Easter right around the corner, my soul is being resurrected.

P.S. Cherry blossoms are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.