Moments of Splendor

Today I feel filled with awe at the generosity of God and the convergence of my life in strange ways... Dorothy's Place. I have been reading Reverend Rick (The Zen Priest's blog) and filled with joy that this man occasionally refers to himself as "a perpetually relapsing Jesus Freak", reads Martin Buber, and wrestles with what it means to have a "mystical relationship with" Jesus and practice Zen Buddhism. I look forward to asking him questions and exploring my own love of Thich Knat Hahn, mediation, and Jesus. Does faith need a label? 

Oskar

"I think you could fall in love with anyone if you saw the parts of them that no one else gets to see. Like if you followed them around invisibly for a day and you saw them crying in their bed at night or singing to themselves as they make a sandwich or even just walking along the street and even if they were really weird and had no friends at school, I think after seeing them at their most vulnerable you wouldn’t be able to help falling in love with them."

It's Official.

“The world will be saved by beauty.” – Dostoevsky

My grandma says I must’ve inherited gypsy blood so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by now at my unexpected migrations.  This summer after my Women Studies course, I took the Starlight Coastal to visit Aaron in California. I would’ve never imagined then that in less than six months I’d be moving to Salinas, though scribbled in all my journals from Sr. year is the sentiment that the West coast was calling me back.  Salinas. John Steinbeck’s backyard. 

I’ll be joining the Franciscan workers of Junipero Serra in January and working at Dorothy’s Place Hospitality Center (its roots are in the Catholic Worker houses.)  "It is the mission of Dorothy's Place Hospitality Center to live, to love, and to work in harmony; to serve the marginalized, to create partnerships that are mutually liberating, and to pursue social justice with respect and dignity for all, in the spirit of St. Francis and Dorothy Day." 

Their work includes: a community kitchen, day room, health clinic, a Women's emergency shelter, silk screening/food service micro-enterprises, an art studio and gallery,  after-school programs for farm worker youth, the House of Peace, and outreach &  advocacy for the marginalized and powerless.

I’ll be living in an interfaith intentional community called Companions of the Way that is dedicated to simple living, non-violence, presence, the “sacrament of conversation,” social and environmental justice.  

Needless to say, I'm very excited.