Slight Homecoming Culture Shock

I moved home for the summer last Sunday. On Monday night Mom asked me what I thought we should have for dinner with our steaks. My first thoughts was "STEAKS?!?! Who's paying for that? Oh right. My parents have jobs. Now what to have..." My request was corn on the cob, even though its out of season I was craving it.

I was told to run down to the store to get some, oh and get a bag of steak fries while you're there too. My thoughts (which this time came out of my mouth before my internal sensor realized it) "Those are really expensive! Potatoes are much cheaper. We can just make them." Of course we stared at each other for about 3 awkward seconds with her probably thinking "uhhhhh ok jen lost it and they're really not that expensive, and thats gunna take awhile." and me thinking "Why is she staring at me like that?... oh right. Mom and Dad can prob handle the splurge of a $4 bag of frozen fries. oops." She recovered first though with "Well that can be your job too." Gee thanks.

Its funny how much my perspective has changed this past year when it comes to groceries. I almost did it again today when I was told that grocery shopping was happening while I was at work so if I wanted anything special to add it to the list. My thought was "What do we need?? Theres still food in the house!" Ofcourse this is the good kind of shock. I do enjoy actually having multiple food options. I do have to remind myself not to get too comfortable with this because come fall its back to meager expenses down in nyc for Jen. For now though - bring on the crazy variety!

Among the lilies

Today at mass we had the Archbishop of Brownsville, TX say mass (he is pretty cool by the way!) Anyway he said a awesome homily that really struck home with some issues I have been having. The gospel today came from John chapter 13: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that youalso love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another". He kept emphasizing that even though this was written over a thousand years ago, that this commandment is still "new" in our culture. A culture of injustice, inequality, violence, anger and so much more. It is a "new" and uncommon thing to love each other. And it certainly is not easy, as all of you know. Recently our lilies have been blooming (which have brightened my days seeing a new one each day!) but anyways I always think of lilies as God's calling for me to be more patient which is required to love others. There are days where I am more impatient than others whether frustrated that people will not clean up after themselves, trying to figure out what I will do next year, or just trying to communicate with my patients. Mathew 6:28 comes to my mind: "And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin." Love requires us to be patient with others and to continue to forgive them, which is good news because we all have our faults and are always in the need of the love of others. Thankfully God is there to provide us with strength and support because we certainly cannot love others without His help.We together as DVs can and will continue to show this "new" commandment to all we meet even after our year is up.

¡Un pueblo unido....

JAMAS SERA VENCIDO!

puedo explicar todo yo veo hoy: la marcha, la gente, los signos, todo que nostros gritamos contra la ley en Arizona. pero quiero mostrarte mis fotos de la marcha- la lucha para justicia para TODOS!

unos de los signos durante la marcha. Dicen "HATE KILLS!" "Igualidad para todos" "Respeto para todos las culturas" "REFORMA EMAGRATORIA PARA TODO"

Mi sangre es rojo igual a la 'tuya'

Hermana Mary Susanah y yo hicimos el camino por la Calle Misión. en este foto nosotros enfrente del edificio del gobierno de Ciudad.

Out 4 Immigration es un grupo que habla del amor entre dos nacionalidades. El hablante nos dijo de su novio quien fue deportado. y él no puede apoyar para su carta verde, porque el gobierno no veo su relación. no es posible-- los dos hombres necesitan escoger entre la ley y el amor.

Todos religiones creen en justicia.

Live This Life

Trying to live in the present and plan for the unknown.

As I send out resumes and try to see which interview requests contain God's call, I'm forced to look 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months, and even 5 years ahead to see where I might be and where I think I want to be. As I'm sure all my fellow volunteers know, it's hard to be in more than one place at a time. So, this is just a quick note to you all to try to remind everyone, especially me, to be here, in this life, right now, and not off in 'planning the future' world. I hope it helps any of you who are feeling the same.

In a recent interview, I was asked to explain what has been most rewarding about my year at St. Leonard's and my past internship experiences...I said it was working with people - real people. The people who know God's voice and want to do right by God and right by their families and friends and society, but mostly people who want to follow God's will for them. Working with the most venerable people of our human community has been the most gratifying and rewarding aspect of any job or internship position I've had in the past and especially present in my current ministry. I'm going to miss the people who come into my office daily to update me on their latest grade on a test, or ask me to help them check their e-mail, or tell me a story about the hardships they've been through before coming to St. Leonard's and the battles they've won since they've completed certain programs. I hope God can continue to direct me to experiences where I can work with and serve God's people.

I hope God calls me somewhere I'm needed in the future, but for now...I'm needed here. So here's to keeping an eye on the future and my heart and hands in the now.

Peace,

Emily

p.s...talk about living in the now...I'm running a 10 mile race (The Broad Street Run) this Sunday in Philadelphia in memory of my boyfriend's late uncle Dean Caponi. Please keep myself and my team - Team Dino - in your prayers.
Thanks & God Bless!!

Over the Hump

Sometimes things just never get into my thick skull no matter how many times I hear them. Things like "the more you give the more you get", "let go and let God" and "this too will pass". No matter how many times I hear these things and experience them to be true, I somehow forget again. And again I have experienced the miracle of what I know is true coming to pass with my community. Just before our mid-year retreat I felt alone, frustrated and just plain fed up with living in community. Yet, this was the storm that always comes before the calm in life.

In a recent conversation a friend asked me how my community life was going and it was then I realized the frustration and loneliness had passed. So many times I have experienced hard times in life, but these times always let way to calmness and joy. I should have known this was coming all along! Although I don't feel extreme joy everyday and sometimes I still feel frustration, I no longer allow these feelings to linger. I'm finding my way back to enjoying the things happening around me and making the most of the unique experience I have living in New York. Even though I'm ready to go back to familiar faces, I'm no longer itching to get out of here ASAP. I hope I can look back on these past months to remind myself "this too shall pass"...and maybe this time I'll actually get it.

Also, I'd like to share some photos of various happenings from NY!


Kira, Jen and I celebrated Jen's birthday at South Seaport in NYC! We went to a great bar and enjoyed homemade cake. Candles, knife, plates and birthday serenade courtesy of the bar ;-)


Kira's friend from CA, Rachel, came for a surprise visit!!! She spent some time up in the Bronx with Jenny from the block and then she, Kira and I spent a day in the city enjoying the sites.

My ministry site, OPening Word, had one of its annual fundraisers. Here I am with some of the wonderful women we teach helping to support a great cause :-)!

Mid-year Retreat Funness!!

Our mid-year retreat was held in beautiful Denver, CO. We all gathered (in person and through skype) on Thursday to begin our retreat. Stefanie and Tony's homework for all of the volunteers was to tell our stories using 5 criteria we had been given ahead of time, but also to be creative. Everyone did a wonderful job of creatively sharing their story especially when it came to using each of our 5 senses during the presentation.

After everyone had shared, we came together to talk about our collective story. It was incredible how many of us had gone through the exact same roller coaster of emotions without realizing everyone was feeling many of the same emotions. I think this realization brought our group even closer and helped us all to feel not so alone in our community life and ministry. We were also given the task to write our collective story in a short paragraph and were given a very limited amount of time to do so. This proved to be a little challenging, especially trying to make sure that everyone was being heard including the NY girls, but we were able to push through and come up with a short paragraph about our time so far as Dominican Volunteers (at the end of this blog entry.

As the retreat came to an end, it was hard to see everyone scatter to many different parts of the country, but comforting to know we would be together soon enough for our end of the year retreat. The retreat was a great time to come back to our ministry sites refreshed and energetic!

*I want to especially thank Tony and Stefanie for all they do for the DVUSA. There is no way that my year, and I am sure the same is for the other volunteers, would be as life changing if the two of you were not part of it. You do so much behind the scenes work and as much as some of us complained about sharing our stories, I think we all had a great time listening to one another! Thanks a bunch!!!*

"We have learned that we need personal time and time with others as well as that personalities can change. We can see God's power in our lives and the need to trust God's will. We learned that faith is diverse within intergenerational relationships. We have struggled with communication with both those we serve and within the communities we live.

We have experienced challenges concerning trusting the Holy Spirit and patience. We have also experienced growth in self and relational knowledge, new things, trust, and vulnerability."

Un-invited Friday excitement

Today at lunchtime another Teacher Assistant (TA) and I were with the kids, instead of the usual 3 people. We were on a trip to the bathroom before sitting the kids down to eat and then nap. As I was making sure that the boys were washing their hands and behaving one of them yells "Dennifer! Deres wader on da foor!!" He's right. Crap. Literally. The toilet is flooding. After I stare at it for .2secs and realize there is no local water shut off like on a house toilet to stop it, I shuttle the boys down to the girls bathroom to the other TA to finish business. Miraculously it stops running, and the secretary is super nice and brings two mops and helps me start cleaning.

As we are mopping, one of the ladies runs into the bathroon and yells "There's a fire in the church!!!" Tracy and I both stare at eachother, drop the mops and start rushing to get the kids down to the room for their coats. (Torch is in the old convent which is semi-attached to St. Nicholas Tolentine Church. They're separated by huge thick stone walls) We get the kids back to the classroom for their coats and are told that we have not been instructed to evacuate by the firemen yet but be ready. I pulled the "Mom voice" out of somewhere, and it worked! The kids listened amazingly well and put on their coats. We were told to feed the kids lunch because the firemen were aware of our situation and they will let us know if we need to leave. Five minutes into the kids attempting to eat lasagna while wearing poufy parkas and scarves we are told to leave and stand accross the street. We were there for about 30-45min. Luckily, my kids were pretty good and semi-entertained by the 2 news helicopters circling like vultures and the fire trucks.

No one was hurt in the fire, but there looks like a lot of damage done to the sanctuary. From what I hear the police are still looking into the cause of the fire, which may have begun in a supply closet.

Atleast this excitement happened on a Friday, I dont think I could handle a Monday with this much action :)