Update on the Home Front

Life is dramatically different since we left Bread & Roses.

Selena, Meta, and I moved out and rented a little house together on the south end of Olympia. Our back porch borders on Watershed Park, a large tract of land set aside for wilderness. I bicycle to work and am spending the bulk of my time reading (currently Daniel Berrigan's commentary on Jeremiah) and listening to the animal sounds from the park. We're on a one year lease - and have agreed to take a break from hospitality for that year to feed our burned-out souls.

Selena is working part time for Partners in Prevention. I'm working part time as a homeless outreach worker with the Family Support Center, and am writing a book of reflections on hospitality and vocation in the Catholic Worker. And, as many of you have heard, Meta is running for Mayor of Olympia!

We promised each other that we wouldn't talk about our common vocation as a household or make any plans for the future of our household until November - enough time to give us a chance to breathe a little. Still, ideas bounce around a bit as we chat with each other, and Meta went so far as to mention her dream of a "politician's-permacultural-house-of-hospitality". I practically started drooling at the thought of hosting Olympia's politicos for dinner... side by side with members of the street community. But see, now I'm breaking our rule. I should get back to reading and let next year worry for itself. ;)