Notes from the Sickbed

I have been sick for the past week, and so have barely done anything worthy of a blog post. I'm starting to get better, thanks to lots of rest and lots of soup. A lot has happened in my absence, or so I hear. A third instance of graffiti in the bathrooms (they were just painted on the 7th) occurred, one of our regulars was banned for being rude to both a server from Wisconsin and Katelyn, and Outreach refused to pick up one of our guests ever again. Outreach is a service that provides transportation to shelters; this guest is one who has been on the street for many, many years and has been a passenger in the Outreach van many, many times without remaining at any shelter and so he has managed to burn his last bridge.

In other news, our program director is currently residing in our house for day 2 of our site visit. She moves in for a few days, conducts one-on-one meetings with each of us, then facilitates a community meeting at the conclusion of her stay, raising issues she thinks we need to work on, and helping us communicate our own concerns. It's going well, and the only one left to do a one-on-one is Maureen, as Katelyn and I did ours yesterday. Katie, our program director, and I talked about everything that's been going on in my life lately (surprisingly, we had a lot to talk about) and how that's been affecting my ministry and community life. We discussed my relationships with those I live with and those I work with, and how they can be improved. It was a very helpful conversation and she has also set up an opportunity for me to receive spiritual direction (with who else, but an SSJ!), and is going to help me in making some decisions on what to do once this year is up.

That is the long and the short of it for now-I'm continuing to take it easy, and won't work at all today until the meal at 4:30. Tomorrow is the big community meeting, which also coincides with our 5 month anniversary of living in Philadelphia so we are planning to have Chinese food and possibly a cake to celebrate. The marathon training has been put on hold for me, at least, but I plan to start workouts again as soon as I can breathe through my nose. Katelyn is "plowing through" some pain in her knees that will hopefully disappear soon. The good news is that Maureen has decided she wants in and has begun working out herself, so we will be looked back upon as "the year they all trained for a marathon."

Also, I have changed the settings on the blog so that anyone should be able to leave a comment now, not just registered users, so comment away! Please be sure to add your name, though, if it doesn't display automatically.

Many blessings on you as we drift out of the craziness of Christmas and into the peace of the Ordinary Time!