I think now I've gone record time without posting. And I have a record deficit of things to say. I've been cutting way back on activities and spending a lot of time in contemplation of where I am and where I want to be. I have joked that I am having a mid-service crisis and this may be the case - because I'm waking up to the fact that in about a year I won't be here anymore, and in about a year and a half, hopefully, I'll be back in school - and because this is a good time to reflect on how my service has gone and how I would like the rest of it to go. On how things have gone, I'm pleased with how I perform in my work and I'm grateful that I see my work as important even while I acknowledge that a lot of different people with different sets of skills could do it just as well. Service is service. I haven't always been pleased with my attitude - I've had trouble focusing or been easily distracted for weeks at a time, and I can get stressed easily on some days - but overall I think I have the right outlook. When I came I wanted to do some sort of sustained effort to volunteer in another department, ideally, throughout my time here. I started in the library, helping with records, and moved into conservation to learn to do bookbinding so that I could rebind books for the library. I'm happy with the learning I've done in general. I've learned so many things, abstract and concrete, that's it's hard to try to begin summarizing them.
On how I would like things to go from now, I would always like to read more about the faith while I can see and feel its relevance and the fruits of past efforts in everything around me. I want to sign up to guide at the Shrines (guiding basically consists of standing guard to make sure no one makes off with the prayer books or someone else's shoes and counting visitors) and I want to see if I can help with Spanish translation in the primary department which deals with correspondence - just a couple of short emails a day to translate is making me hungry for some things that are a little longer and more complex. I would like to be of service to the families here somehow, and I would like to sign up to do things that are of absolutely no benefit to me, simply because they have to be done by someone, because this is real service, in a way, and because I imagine that is what large parts of having kids is like. It might even be a good warm-up for the times when my kids will behave ungratefully (or not gratefully), because here I know I'll be met with at least some gratitude for the services I render.
I'm very happy that in exactly two months I will be home - I've already booked my flights, and proven that I did not steal my identity. And I've begun to make a list of the things I would like to do when I get there:
-see family and friends (of course, this is far and away the most important thing and far and away the most time consuming as well)
-breathe fresh air
-drink tap water
-look at grass
-go hiking
-walk through downtown Chicago
-walk through downtown Racine
-walk through downtown Hustisford
-visit Milwaukee's east side (maybe visit an art gallery, maybe go to Rochambo)
-bike
-go for a long walk
-visit an English-language library
-cook for several people
-see snow, if i get so lucky
-shop for electronics (very expensive here)
-buy underwear (most clothes here are ill-made to fit the body, and underwear is no exception)
Undoubtedly the list will grow.
