to love and to be loved

I officially know what I'm doing after I'm done here in August! I heard back from JVC Northwest and so I'll be heading to Tacoma, Washington to work as the Farm and Garden Assistant to a L'Arche community. If you don't know about L'Arche, it's really, really cool. Here's a blurb about it from the L'Arche USA website:

"L’Arche communities, family-like homes where people with and without disabilities share their lives together, give witness to the reality that persons with disabilities possess inherent qualities of welcome, wonderment, spirituality, and friendship. 

Perhaps an extraordinary notion in our fast-paced and consumer-driven society, L’Arche believes that these qualities, expressed through vulnerability and simplicity, actually make those with a disability our real teachers about what is most important in life: to love and to be loved."

So that about sums it up. People with and without developmental disabilities living in community. The unique thing about L'Arche, I think, is that the idea of sharing life together is really, really embedded in the philosophy of the communities. Each person, whether they have a disability or not, is viewed as having something worthwhile to contribute, and part of the mission of L'Arche is to recognize those contributions. Here's another blurb from the website:

"Often people who have developmental disabilities are less preoccupied with competition and success than is typical in our society, and they may have a keen sensitivity to relationships and a gift for celebration and for creating unity. L'Arche believes that people with developmental disabilities have important contributions to make to others, contributions that help to humanize our society."

Man, whoever wrote for their website has a way of putting things beautifully. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to this job. Sure, I'm a little nervous about the idea of working all day with people who developmental disabilities, but I've heard rave reviews from several people who have visited L'Arche communities. My housemate Erin has two friends who visited a L'Arche community and stayed there for three years.

Well. Even if I only stay there for one year, I think it will be worth my time. Here's what I'm thinking. I don't know yet what will be the next "big thing" in my life, like going to grad school, getting married, or finding a job that could eventually become a career. So right now I'm spending my time learning about myself, others, and the world. Wow, that sounded a lot cooler than what I'm actually doing. Okay, right now I spend my time trying to catch the bus, not leave the stove on, and find time to read. But in the midst of it all, I am learning a few things, actually. Like how to make butternut squash soup, which I have successfully done more than once here. Or that I'm a 6 in the Enneagram. Or that drawing faces on people's chins is a good idea. Always a good idea.

So, without a plan or a three-year law degree to guide me, I'm still doing what I would call exploring, meaning I have a lot of options of what to do from one year to the next. And for now, at least, I'm fine with that. Regarding next year, I think JVC is a good way to go, giving me some structure and stability and reminding me of important values, but giving me quite a bit of freedom, too. And I think working at L'Arche will be good, too. For one thing, I may never again be very close with people with developmental disabilities, but spending a year with them might forever change the way I understand them. For another, I will be doing something completely different - farming and gardening - than I have ever done as a job before. I think that after this year of mostly being in front of a computer at work, getting to be outside will be a welcome change. And, most likely, I'll be tired and sore after about a week. But still, I'm looking forward to it.

And, to leave you with, here is a waffle I made on Jen's birthday breakfast. I don't think I've ever made waffles before, so I'm pretty proud of this little guy.