August, September, October

My how the time goes.  I’m running around, one million miles an hour.  This time, it is good. 

August had me mobile in Australia.  I zipped around Sydney, Port Macquarie, Melbourne, Tasmania, Paramatta, visiting 30 coffee shops in thirty days, several art museums, a half-dozen beaches.  I had time to think, rest, relax, talk, write, read, pray, and dream.  I saw beautiful places, ate fantastic sea food.  I grew increasingly comfortable and confident being a stranger in a strange land filled with unfamiliar bird songs, unfamiliar syllables, and unfamiliar accents.  It was grand.  I may never see that land again, but it will forever remain in my imagination.

September brought be back to the states, back to Aliquippa, back to Uncommon Grounds Cafe, and back to Trinity Seminary.  It is a new year for me with new responsibilities.  I’m raising personal support to work at the cafe full-time now.  I got to write my own job description, which means I get to do what I want and hope to do.  Right now I’m facilitating our art programs (Wednesday night artist space, after-school art classes, monthly cultural events/exhibitions), and working on the Spring Street Urban Farm, training new leaders, discipling people on a one-to-one basis.  Still no car, and now no computer, I’m keeping things simple.  I think I’ve got my monthly expenses down to about $140 a month, which is pretty rad.  I’m making art, watching people and places grow, writing grants for new programs, taking time to be interupted by strangers. 

October is supposed to be a long month, but it zipped right by.   I got to visit Scott and Krissy Delaney and some of the great folks that they share a house church with.  The final harvest from the Spring Street Urban Farm has left me inundated with Jalapenos and Jerusalem Artichokes.  The leaves are changing, some are a flaming yellow, many are already gone.  Winter is on its way.  A drifter told me to graduate, so I guess that means I’ll be finishing my Master of Arts in Religion at Trinity in the coming year.  I’ve got about eight classes left.  This semester I’ve  had to try on preaching for the first time.  I delivered my third sermon yesterday.  Strange to be behind a puplit. 

November is looking busy.  The Aliquippa Street Department has already put up the city’s Christmas decorations.  The rest of the year looks like: parents visiting, another trip to Toledo, Thanksgiving, Christmas, two more art exhitions, gardening grants, lots of wool. 

I’m content, for the first time ever.

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~ by dbaldwin86 on November 4, 2011.