Does it really count as a season if it's just called Ordinary Times?

This has no relation to the rest of the post. I just wonder that every year about this time. Also, "After Pentecost" could use a bit of a name make over.This weekend, Brittany and I went on another retreat, this time with volunteers from not just our program but from other faith-based (mostly Catholic) programs around New York (with one site in LA). Apparently if I had gone to a Catholic college instead of Lutheran college, I would have spent a lot of time on retreats because I’m learning that Catholics like retreats a lot. This one focused on discernment, so I feel like having a theme makes them slightly better. (For anyone who did not go to a church-affiliated school at any point, discernment is about discerning God’s calling for your life’s vocation. It’s very intense and requires a lot of talking by people who are not God. At least according to the actions of the people who try to foster it.) Anyway, we got to hear from past volunteers reflecting on their experiences and have some time to discuss in small groups and pairs our own experiences with our service sites and jobs. Apparently they also didn’t know that any of us would have learned in college anything about work-life balance because they seemed to assume that we were completely, utterly exhausted and required extensive individual reflection time as we don’t have even a moment to contemplate our own futures as part of our regular life. This mostly only bothered me because I am obviously capable of spending time by myself thinking about my own life. The Boston house of our program came, so we got to hang out with Christine and Rachel some more, even though we were just at their house last weekend.

Last week marked the third week in a row I went on a notable visit for Environmental. In case you missed it, Environmental kind of focuses on air quality in the home as an aspect of health and kind of focuses on pest control and often both at the same time. The more times I explain it to people, especially around New York, the more I realize what a rare program it is. Although wealth people get bed bugs, they also have the money to get rid of them. Low income people often just throw out their furniture, or use expensive chemicals that have limited benefit and harmful side effects, or worse. Anyway, Thursday’s visit was unique not because of the infestation, but because of the house itself. When we first got to the unmarked door, we had to call up on the phone because there was no buzzer. When the client let us in, we were in literally the narrowest stairwell/hallway area I’ve been in yet. The building was three apartments stacked on top of each other with the minimum of extra hallway space, which was being utilized by the families anyway for extra storage and a home for Kevin, the cat. Members of the same extended family owned all three apartments, giving them the option of using the hallways. Inside the apartments themselves, despite the dingy hallway, I found some of the nicest apartments I’ve visited yet. Each kitchen was painted a bold color, like avocado green or Clementine orange, and the out of work carpenters living in the building had gone to work laying floors, building pocket doors (my favorite!), and building in everything from closets to loft beds to shelves. Moral of the story: if you ever live in a rundown building in East Harlem with a disinterested owner, marry a carpenter.