Love is weird...

"I love these people, you know?"

I was at the drop-in centre on Friday night. I was being ear bashed by Paul. Aussie was giving me heaps of cheek. Jennifer looked pleased to be back. Grace thought I'd stolen her purse. Nick was asking me to make more drink. Dave was late and wanted more sausages. Saraya was grizzly and Summer was noisy. It was a normal drop-in night. My friend Noel does endless sink loads of dishes. He was sitting having a brief break when I plonked myself down beside him. I surveyed the room, with all of its activities and conversations and all I could say was, "I love these people, you know?" These words were my own funny surprised reaction that named the feelings going through my "body". I was surprised by the depth of my feeling at that point of time. Often they drive me mad. Often they annoy the hell out of me, but all I could feel as I watched them was a deep sense of connection ... with this weird mob??? Where did that come from? Love IS weird.... I often find that.

The new Kitchen is in...

The church has refurbished its kitchen. Some women felt that it was old and not a good look for outside groups. I didn't think it was too bad, but the decision was made to do it. We got some grants for some of the cost. It will cost in excess of $20,000, I have lost count. We still have not got it up to commercial standard unfortunately. All I feel as I think about the money involved is that we really need to make sure it serves the needs of people in the community. Good stewardship demands that we use it well. 

Nearly Cremated Swearing Parson...

On Monday I went with a guy from Church to level the floor under the Church kitchen. The piles were not reaching the floor bearers any more so we had decided to pack the piles before they brought the new benches in. I went under and Curly (a friend and church elder) had a halogen lamp going so we could see what we were doing. I was working away on the pile when Curly shouted, "You're burning! Your back is smoking!" The heat from the lamp behind me was burning my overalls, probably just singing off the dust and dirt, but it was quite hot. I rolled in the dust to make sure any burning was smothered and readjusted my position. Curly got the giggles about a smoking parson. A little later I had a chisel and was chipping away at plaster on a pile. All of a sudden there was a loud explosion and the lamp behind me went out. A chip of plaster must have landed on the unprotected bulb. I was so surprised by the noise that I let out a loud "Shit!". Curly was as calm as ever... "Oh," he said, "Now you've bust my light." It wasn't till later that I thought that there could easily have been one of my lady church members up stairs who may not have been amused with the minister's voice yelling expletives from under the Church floor. I had a head lamp on so we completed the task with that.

Dig in and keep going...

Building a Habitat house is fun and has a lot of positive experiences. But we have been going since late May on this house and at this stage the novelty of getting up on Saturday morning and working is wearing thin. I drove to the site looking with envy at the people going for leisurely Saturday morning bike rides, or sitting on their deck drinking coffee and reading the paper, or jogging around the park as I drove passed. I had the blues badly. Once I got there and was working, relating and joking I was OK. I know that if we keep going very soon we'll have the joy of seeing another family housed. That will blot out the weariness of the present Saturday blues.

Photo: Excess wall board being loaded at the Habitat site. That's me in the greenish overalls, I do look tired don't I?