Patty is going to be my job supervisor this year, and though she and I have only communicated through a telephone interview and via numerous e-mails, I already know that I like her. As the Executive Director for Joseph's House, the hospice I will serve at, she is a busy woman, yet she has always taken time to answer my many questions (and there have been a lot!) with thoroughness and compassion. And at the end of each e-mail, after saying how excited the Joseph's House family is to meet me, she tells me to "take gentle care."
This phrase caught my attention from the very first e-mail. Take gentle care. Maybe Patty can already sense that often I take care of others better than I take care of myself. That I struggle with holding myself gently. Maybe after over a decade of working at Joseph's House, a resting home for formerly homeless men and women dying from AIDs and other terminal illnesses, Patty knows that every life needs to be handled like a precious, fragile gift. Either way, her words are a gracious reminder to me.
I've spent the past six months in eager anticipation of today. In a few hours, I will hop on a red-eye plane to the East Coast landing just in time to begin my Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) orientation in Pennsylvania. After a week of preparation, I will then travel with my six housemates (yep, I get to share a bedroom again!) to Washington, D.C. Our first week there will be spent visiting the different work placements of our housemates and then on August 20th I finally get to begin my time at Joseph's House. I can't wait!
Now that the time has come to leave this Washington, though, I have to admit that I am nervous. Nervous that the one bag I am allowed to bring to orientation may just be a little too big. Nervous that in the midst of all my excitement I have perhaps not prepared my mind and spirit as well as I could have for a year that will be wonderful but also extremely challenging. Nervous that I may not be as much of a blessing to the people I will meet as I desperately want to be.
Yet as all the doubts line up, another voice speaks saying "take gentle care." Not just of others, but first of myself. Take gentle care. A deep breath. And it will all be alright.
It is going to be a crazy year! To find out more about what I am doing and where I will be, check out these sites:
http://www.josephshouse.org
http://www.jesuitvolunteers.org
Next stop -- the East Coast!
