Spirit On The Margins

 My wife, 2 sons, and their “significant others” had the honor of serving a holiday dinner at Central Avenue Apartments, a City House site where I volunteer. It is an affordable housing apartment building for persons that have found themselves homeless and are in recovery.

Central Avenue Apartments

We’ve all had experiences where we bring disparate parts of our lives into conversation with each other.  This was one of those for me.  My family has been very supportive of my work, but they have seldom had the opportunity to be in direct contact with friends I’ve made. I care deeply about my family as well as my friends at Central Avenue Apartments, so it was great to bring the two communities together.

To pull off a meal for 30 - 40 people we needed the help of residents to set up tables, clean up afterwards, and for use of ovens to warm food. There was a real sense of connectedness and belonging as we all worked together to prepare and serve the meal. We had underestimated how long it would take to warm the ham. Everyone worked together to problem solve.  Numerous residents volunteered solutions.

I get anxious about big gatherings like this that involve lots of logisitics - not my best skill set.  As usual, I was feeling overly responsible and conscientious to make the whole thing come together.  Fortunately, Jenn, my son’s significant other, and Yolanda, one of the Central Avenue Apartment residents, provided logistical leadership in the right moment so I could let go of some of my anxieties. Lots of people jumped into help in big and small ways.

Because dinner preparation ran long, my family members and residents got the opportunity to sit and talk.  This is an apartment building for adults. Children are only allowed as guests. So, it was really cool to have one resident bring his daughter and another resident and his wife bring their grandchild. It felt much more like a holiday celebration with children present and everyone interacting as families.

At the end of the meal, I was touched by the gratitude expressed to us by some of the residents. It clearly meant something to them. My family members talked afterwards about how much fun the whole experience had been, reconfirming the signs of spirit present among us as we celebrated together. It was one of the highlights of my holiday. I am grateful.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 10:35 am and is filed under The Poor Transformed, Transformed by the poor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.