Day Ten

Hi everyone, this is Theresa Vela. We have just about completed our tenth day of immersion. We are currently sitting in the Spiritual Life Center, cooking team Red is cleaning up from dinner while team Blue, who prepared dinner, is journaling about the day. Reflecting on the day leaves me feeling full, and tired. Everyday I feel as though 7.30am comes faster and faster, almost as though 7.30 has made a deal with 7 and is in fact coming first. I realize is completely ridiculous, but knowing that it doesn’t make getting up any easier. Easy or hard, get up me must and reluctantly we do. And while we made it to the bus stop in time to make the “early” No. 6 we did so in a very tired manner.

When we arrived at St. Anthony’s Angie gave us a talk on Addictive Illnesses as a follow-up to RJ’s talk yesterday afternoon. After the talk half of us went to the Salvation Army to deliver meals to the homebound and the other half went to work in the Dinning Room. It was a busy day in the dinning room. The closer to the end of the month it gets the more people are in need of a meal. Yet, even though the dinning room seems crowded and chaotic, it is stilled filled with an atmosphere of equal dignity and respect for others.

Our afternoon plans changed at the last minute because our planned speaker couldn’t make it, so rather than learning about Hunger in SF we heard from Joe, another participant in the Fr. Alfred Center’s recovery program. After Joe’s talk we returned to St. Agnes for an afternoon nap.

Once refreshed we, minus Shag who is having some back trouble because of the hard floors we are sleeping on, went out to the Panhandle to play capture the flag. The winner of this game was never truly resolved since both teams were convinced the other team had unfairly hidden its flag.

Team Blue made Sloppy Joe’s (they made me a Sloppy Tofu), corn, garlic bread, and strawberries. During dinner we had yet another fantastic conversation, which like most of our conversations fluidly bounced from topic to topic. The dinner conversation is usually, in my opinion, one of the high points of the day.

The students are now done cleaning and journaling. They are patiently, yet loudly, waiting for me to finishing writing so we can have dessert. We have the Zanassi family to thank for our much-anticipated dessert of S’mores! I can only ask them play so many hands of cards before they will lose patience with me, so I will say goodnight.

I hope this finds you all well and in good spirits! Have a wonderful night. We are looking forward to seeing you on Saturday!

Peace,
Theresa Vela