A few days ago, Cullen asked me if it was Wednesday of Week One. I did not think this question odd. Time flow during the summer program is different from normal time. One day here is like three regular days out in the real world. We live so much life from morning to afternoon to night that it is easy to lose track. So I replied, "Yes, it's Wednesday, but this is Week Zero. We don't start counting the weeks until the first bus arrives."
Well silly me. He meant which week in Christian Prayer, not in the Summer Program! OK, in that sense, yes, it's Week One!
But we are still living in Week Zero now. It's an odd time. Waiting for the first bus of families to arrive. The bus broke down. We were expecting them at 5 PM, but now we expect them at 10:30. And we are out of mode, out of sync, unsure of where to situate ourselves. I sat at the firepit until the air got too chilly, enjoying the eerie quiet. Everything is perfectly ready. Except there are no families. After weeks of preparation, chaos, and even a little stress, to sit at the fire pit in solitude with nothing to do is ... almost unsettling.
Soon enough, it will be over and Week One will begin. Is it some kind of materialistic American compulsion to be constantly on the journey, engaged in some activity at every moment? Maybe that's why this unexpected time feels like we've sailed the ship off the edge of the earth. We're.... we're... not on a schedule right now! We're lost! Adrift in another dimension!
OK, it's not really that bad. But I can see the wisdom of having healthy portions of Ordinary Time in the liturgical calendar. Every moment does not need to have a theme and a color. Ordinary time, the in-between time, Week Zero. It's actually kind of cool.
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4 comments:
Kinda nice to have some "unexpected ordinary time" cause we got to eat pasteles and cheesecake and check out Maggie's Nook. Soon and very soon the bus will be rolling in...
The "unexpected ordinary time" also gave the volunteers a chance to sing Umplucka together for the first time!
Sister, your silent anticipation under the stars sounds like a gifted fruit of the spitit.
Enjoy the wonders of the moment and the weeks ahead!
I will like to thanks the Sisters and volunteers at Trinita. My first time, the experience is unforgetable...unique. A week without, tv, news papers, computer ..etc. I learned a lot, got closer to God, share a cabin with ten people (now my friends) and can get over the fact that my granddaughter Nina enjoy it so much. Thanks and God bless you all. It was heaven on earth.
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