Excitement

I keep posting nostalgic and pessimistic things. I don't know why, because my life is awesome!

Starting Saturday we are going to have a HUGE teaching project! I find myself not even able to be excited enough because I have never done anything like this, so I don't know what to expect. I am really happy about it though... Children's classes every day.... the chance to meet all kinds of new people and make spiritual connections with them... :-)

This weekend my junior youth group is working together to make a movie. It's not really a project of the group, I think... the lines between Animator and just friends activities are seriously blurred in this group. I even feel weird calling it a youth group sometimes. These people are my friends and we do stuff we like, including study a book, service and art sometimes, but a lot of the times just talking.

In general, I am blown away by the effectiveness of the core activities in creating intimacy in groups. Study circles I have tutored and been in are still dear friends that I rely on in teaching activities and in life, children's classes I teach are creating bonds between not only me and the children, but also with me and the families of the children and most importantly right now, animating is creating bonds I would never have imagined. I think it will take some time to realize how important this is in our community. I think (and here the alternative education brainwash-ee is unleashed) that schools/society as it is structured are training us away from unity in our very infancy. The emphasis that is placed on children having the ability to interact with their peers (who consist mostly of classmate, grade lines being almost impossible social barriers) makes us think that our intimate connections should be only with people like ourselves. Not children, or youth or the middle aged or old. This is completely false and dangerous for our communities. The intimacy of core activities is helping us to break those are lines and interact, really and truly, like family.

Also, I have been looking at apartments this week and having a great time thinking about where I am going to live and the communities I want to be a part of. Aside from the fact that I keep finding places that I can't rent because I can't move until July, I am loving figuring out how this is all going to work.