This week was our third week of work. I spent a lot of my time watching training videos but also had the opportunity to visit court at the detention center. This was a very interesting experience. Courtrooms are very drab. But they're places where very important decisions are made about people's freedoms and are run by other very real people.
I continued riding my bike to work and noticed this flower on my first day of the week and took a picture on Thursday afternoon. I was impressed with the way that it was growing between the cracks in the bricks, oblivious to its placement and absolutely thriving. I hope to be like this flower. Maybe not always living in the cracks but thriving regardless of my circumstances. I know this won't always be my reality but it makes for a nice motivational poster.
I also started taking a walk around the office building during my lunch break, both to warm up from the A/C inside and get a few steps in. It's surprising how quickly my body has adjusted to the heat here! It was 94, I was wearing a light long sleeved shirt, black jeans, and tennis shoes and felt pretty comfortable. Granted, my walk only lasted about seven minutes but I wasn't sweating profusely for those seven minutes!
For dinner on Monday night it was my turn to cook and I decided to make zucchini lasagna. It turned out great! But I did severely underestimate the amount of time it would take to prepare and bake. Prep work included slicing and salting the zucchini so it wasn't soggy when it baked. I knew that would take about 20 minutes but neglected to scroll to the bottom of the recipe and look at the hour-long baking time. Another reminder to read all of the instructions first, I suppose!
We also experienced a thunderstorm this week! One of my housemates caught this cool photo on Tuesday night. While we enjoy the rain brought by the storms, the humidity does lower the effectiveness of our evaporative cooler (aka "swamp cooler") which uses evaporating water to cool the house as a low-energy alternative to A/C. When it's dry out (as it often is in the desert) the swamp cooler works great! However, at this time of the year, when the humidity is a bit higher, our house becomes stickier than cooler.
This post is also coming a bit later in the weekend because we've been a bit busy. This weekend Shalom Mennonite hosted Masankho Banda from Malawi. Masankho led us through many workshops on Friday evening and throughout the day on Saturday that centered on dance, music and storytelling as community-building tools. This workshop felt very appropriate; one of my biggest takeaways was the importance of stopping and watching what other people are doing and thinking about how this year is a longer pause for me. I'm witnessing how the Florence project operates, how Shalom builds community, and how my housemates live. These are groups and people that I can learn a lot from!
After moving my body in lots of new ways on Saturday I felt both physically tired but spiritually energized. This spiritual and community-centered weekend was capped off Sunday with me adding my bass guitar to church music and a delicious potluck.
Heading into the next week, I'm thinking about the ways that these walks, storms, music, and meals are filling in the cracks for me right now. I'm not settled quite yet, but I'm getting closer. This week I found myself missing activities and people that have been staples in my life for a long time. Activities like choir and orchestra are things I've participated in for the last 10 years of my life (at least). I know there are ways to continue connecting to those experiences and it will just take a little time and effort to find them. Or maybe I'll find new ways to fulfill those needs!
Here's to filling in a few more cracks this week!
You are finding your rhythms Cade.