The Healing House is a really transitory place. People move in and out all the time. Volunteers and residents come and go on their own schedules, according to their own plans. I suppose people come in and out of our lives like that all the time, but it's definitely accelerated and highlighted here. It seems that people move out just as you were beginning to get to know them. Just when you're getting used to things as they are, new people move in and the cycle begins again.
The ebb and flow can really get you. Last month, six people in the course of two weeks moved out. The house got strangely empty and quiet. The people I'd used to seeing around and gotten quite close with were suddenly not around anymore. The multitude of volunteers that we had shrunk to a just a wee little group of us that were supposed to keep things flowing here. After a week or so eerie quiet, perhaps just when it began getting peaceful almost, six people moved in all in the same day. Five of them were together, and one came here on her own and she certainly marches to the beat of her drum. Those people have been with us for about six weeks. Just this last week they all left, and coincidentally the one who came here on her own also left to go perform in the circus in the jungle.
This time around I'm more used to it, but it's really interesting to sit and reflect on the multitude of people I've already seen come through. What's even more amazing is to try to piece together how we've all influenced each other and how our paths intersect. I've met so many people from all different parts of the world, from Egypt, England, New Zealand, Canada, Lithuania, and Germany, just to name a few. I've learned great lessons from them, such as what herbs are good for certain ailments. I've learned all about how important it is to get out of the city every once in a while and just be in nature. I've even learned how to make an excellent cashew cream sauce (that tastes exactly like alfredo sauce!) The group of five people who came through consisted of a couple and three teenagers (their daughter and two friends) who were here for the second time. The couple knew so much about ayurveda, and the wife was an ayurvedic doctor. They gave an intense week-long workshop here, and always had great health tips and cooking tips. Thinking about all that, I feel so grateful that I got this opportunity and I get so excited thinking about how I'll apply those ideas I picked up (especially the one about the cashew alfredo!)
A new volunteer arrived on Tuesday. Her name is Valerie and she's from Canada. (She's the beginning of a new wave of people that should be moving in soon.) She's only been here a short while, but already she's made so many contributions to the way we run things here. Tonight, she even led our first meeting on how we're going to be doing our bookkeeping from now own, in a definitely more organized fashion, hopefully making our organization ready for our on-going growth.
The ebb and flow can really get you. Last month, six people in the course of two weeks moved out. The house got strangely empty and quiet. The people I'd used to seeing around and gotten quite close with were suddenly not around anymore. The multitude of volunteers that we had shrunk to a just a wee little group of us that were supposed to keep things flowing here. After a week or so eerie quiet, perhaps just when it began getting peaceful almost, six people moved in all in the same day. Five of them were together, and one came here on her own and she certainly marches to the beat of her drum. Those people have been with us for about six weeks. Just this last week they all left, and coincidentally the one who came here on her own also left to go perform in the circus in the jungle.
This time around I'm more used to it, but it's really interesting to sit and reflect on the multitude of people I've already seen come through. What's even more amazing is to try to piece together how we've all influenced each other and how our paths intersect. I've met so many people from all different parts of the world, from Egypt, England, New Zealand, Canada, Lithuania, and Germany, just to name a few. I've learned great lessons from them, such as what herbs are good for certain ailments. I've learned all about how important it is to get out of the city every once in a while and just be in nature. I've even learned how to make an excellent cashew cream sauce (that tastes exactly like alfredo sauce!) The group of five people who came through consisted of a couple and three teenagers (their daughter and two friends) who were here for the second time. The couple knew so much about ayurveda, and the wife was an ayurvedic doctor. They gave an intense week-long workshop here, and always had great health tips and cooking tips. Thinking about all that, I feel so grateful that I got this opportunity and I get so excited thinking about how I'll apply those ideas I picked up (especially the one about the cashew alfredo!)
A new volunteer arrived on Tuesday. Her name is Valerie and she's from Canada. (She's the beginning of a new wave of people that should be moving in soon.) She's only been here a short while, but already she's made so many contributions to the way we run things here. Tonight, she even led our first meeting on how we're going to be doing our bookkeeping from now own, in a definitely more organized fashion, hopefully making our organization ready for our on-going growth.
No comments:
Post a Comment