New Mums

I need to start this post off with a confession...  I wore my socks on the wrong feet last week. Some of my socks have the letters "L" and "R" on them, and for the first time since I bought them who knows how long ago, I did not abide by the letters on my feet. And you know what? It was totally freeing! As my co-workers will readily tell you, I maybe, kinda, sorta am a wee bit OCD about certain things. I just like things to be neat and ordered. Anyway, I wore my socks on the wrong feet and have do so twice more since then.

It's been awhile since my last update. The biggest change since then is that eight new families have started their year at the cottage. It's very exciting to meet the new families. Each family brings a new story and a fun new experience. They each bring with them the hardships that they have faced, but the hope is that with time and a bit of effort, they will learn something from Quaker Cottage or find something in themselves that will bring them back to stability. The previous group that started in October seemed particularly difficult. Some of the mums were (and still are) in a bad place, and they bring that mood with them when they come up the mountain. Despite it being difficult at times to deal with this, I am so glad that they have the opportunity to come to Quakers. Now, the reason I am mentioning the previous group is to illustrate the contrast between them and the new group. The new group is (so far) energetic, garrulous, and flirtatious . You may be asking how I know they're flirty. Ahem....Well, uh....Being that I am the only young male worker that they see at Quakers, it's easy for them to find a target.

Here's the story. It was their first day coming to Quaker Cottage, and I was lucky enough to be driving the bus while we went out to pick everyone up. My supervisor was in the back of the bus in order to chat with them. The first mum we picked up was the protagonist (or antagonist, whichever way you want to see it) of this story. She steps onto the bus, and my supervisor introduces me to her. She gives me a look and proceeds to compliment my smile and say how wonderful it is to meet me. I wasn't thinking too much of it at this point, but my supervisor was. She was the real instigator of it all. She continued to mention me in conversation throughout the rest of the bus ride and telling the mum that she should sit up front beside me. So as fate would have it, the mums did not all fit in the back of the bus (they had their babies with them too), so this mum, who happened to not have any babies with her, had to sit up front. At that point, the mum began the heavy flirting. Among other things, she said, "Well, I have a boyfriend, but I've only been seeing him for like two weeks, so it's not anything serious." Trying to be professional, I just talked to her like I would anyone else, but somehow my being nice came off as returning the flirts. Eventually, I was getting embarrassed because the other mums were a bit clued in on our conversation. It was at this point that I made a huge mistake. Because the back of the bus doesn't have vents, I had the heat blasting and that leaves the front extremely warm. Well, I was just too hot, so I turned to the back and said, "Is everyone warm back there? Because it's getting hot up here!" Instantly, I knew I had dug myself a hole. But it was too late...the words had already come out. My supervisor's response? "Oh, you're hot? Well, I think "Amber" is in heat!"

The next six months will certainly not be dull.

Speaking of six months, I am officially halfway done with my term of service here in NI. Not sure how I feel about that.

I suppose I should talk about the new children too. The babies are fun. Whenever we have a new group start, we have to be extra prepared to deal with crying babies. On that first day, one toddler had fallen asleep on the bus, so when he woke up in a new place surrounded by strangers, it must have been like the whole world had crashed down around him. I have never seen a child cry so violently. He was dry-heaving in between gasps for air and body-shaking sobs. This continued for what felt like an hour but was likely half that long. I was certain he was either going to be sick or pass out from exhaustion. And once one child start crying, the others followed shortly after. Thankfully, they were easier to calm down.

I still haven't met all of the new afterschoolers, but I have met the new preteen group. Here's a quick story from one of the new boys. We had just finished an egg challenge where we wrap up an egg with whatever you can find and then drop it from up high. After unwrapping it and discovering it was still intact, one boy grabbed the egg and, without a thought, smashed it on his head. The kids were all laughing, and the staff stood there in a semi-shocked speechlessness. Yes, what he did was funny, but we see this type of behavior from a different light. This boy is a glutton for attention. He instantly loved me because I am American, and he loves all things American. Does he really love everything about America, or is he trying to find a source of attention from me? He is unable to sit still when we're all having discussions and is continuously cutting into other people's conversations. Basically, his social skills are not where they should be. Through our interactions with him, we can see that something is likely missing from home or school, and just like we do for all of the children, we attempt to help them learn the skills they are missing or need work on while they're with us.


Outside of work, I went on an overnight trip/hike with the Ireland Young Friends group that I have connected with. Although the hike was somewhat disappointing, the time with this group is always good craic. It's like going back to camp.











I went to a park with Becky and Steffi last weekend and saved a bird caught in fishing line. It took ages, and the bird was not a happy chappy. I felt like I was in one of those commercials that shows workers cleaning oil off of coastal birds.

At the Waterworks, a park in Belfast

The sun is shining longer and longer each day finally. It was not so pleasant seeing the sun set around 4:00pm most of the winter. It's also raining less often (at least it seems like it) which means that the sun has a chance to peak out from behind the clouds now and then. 

And lastly, instead of celebrating Fat Tuesday here, they celebrate Pancake Tuesday. As a pancake lover, I can get behind this day of pancake gluttony.

His Brain Wanted to Have

Have you ever had one of those glitch in the matrix moments? You know, when something feels off. Well, I had one of those unsettling moments yesterday whilst watching the Olympics. (Haha...whilst...look how quaint I am!) Ahem...so anyway, I was sitting on the sofa watching ice dancing (which, by the way, is totally awesome), and the camera panned across the crowd. All of a sudden, a photographer came into view, and he was pointing his camera directly at me. For that split second, I was totally unnerved. At that exact moment, I felt myself flinch a bit, and I thought to myself, "Don't take a picture of me!" Once the moment passed, I laughed at myself for few seconds until the same thing happened a second time. It felt like I was looking through a window and that the cameraman was invading my privacy. I lost touch with reality twice in a matter of 30 seconds. OR! I saw the truth behind my perceived reality and I only needed to embrace that moment in order to remove the veil of my existence.....................nah...

On another note, I've been told by a number of people now that I am a very good writer. I don't feel that my writing is spectacular by any means. In fact, I would much rather read another person's writings than my own because I like to experience the deeper thinking and more elaborate descriptions that they put together. There is something so much more refined in the way other people can express themselves that I haven't been able to see in my own writing. My writing seems simple. After a discussion with my momma, I came to the conclusion that perhaps this is not as bad as it first appears. Sure, I don't have a philosopher's tongue. No, I can't always piece words together so eloquently that readers can watch them dance (that was a quick attempt though). Instead, my writing is simple and honest. I try to provide a laugh or two when I can manage to think of something funny, and I just write as if I were talking (except my words don't work so well when I'm talking, so telling stories is much easier this way). All this rambling was a lead in to tell you that my aunt even suggested that I write a book. WELL LET ME TELL YOU! As a matter of fact, I actually did start writing a book years ago, and until recently, I had totally forgotten about it. I can't remember how old I was when I wrote this, but the last time it was saved on my computer I was 13. My working masterpiece takes shape as a children's book about a Native American boy named Ducky. I would like to share it with you all now. tehe! 

Ducky Does It

Ducky was an Indian who was afraid of water. He was very short and couldn’t swim. He lived right next to a river. Ducky was only six years old, and he never went near the river because the water was cold and deep.

A whole year passed without Ducky going near the river. He was seven now and braver. He thought to himself, “I need to stand up to my fear.” So he went down to the river and sat down. After awhile he started to relax. He stood up and walked into the water. “This isn’t so bad,” he thought. Then he tripped over a rock and fell in. He quickly jumped to his feet and ran as fast he could back home.

It was already late in the evening, so Ducky went straight to bed. That night he had a terrifying nightmare. The nightmare was about him falling into the river, trying and trying to swim out, but he just couldn’t.

       That morning he woke up frightened into a cold sweat. The sun was up and as bright as ever. It was a warm day. He went back down to the river. He put his toe into the water, and said to himself,” The water is warm today.” Ducky walked into the water. His brain wanted to have 

 

And that's where I stopped! What a line! "His brain wanted to have..." So many potential things that his brain could have that I couldn't even finish my thought. Silly Andrew... 

Anywho, I think it would be really cool to write a book. I don't know what I would write about, but the challenge that it presents for me is incredibly appealing. One thing is for sure though, I won't be writing a book about a boy named Ducky. 

(Also, I went bowling and scored a 147. Ignore this final thought if you're better than me, and everyone else....Look at that number and be amazed!)

Life's Most Underrated Pleasures

Today, I want to share a list of those itty bitty things in life that are often forgotten when we think of the things that make us happy. Each of these items comes from a thread on Reddit. I've edited some for language and content, but they are still the thoughts of people from who-knows-where in the world.

So, life's most underrated pleasures:

• First gulp of water after walking home on a hot day. There really is nothing like it - but the satisfaction only lasts for about 0.5 seconds...
• Being finished with something you really dread doing. It's a huge weight off your mind and a sense of accomplishment rolled into one.
• That little window of time where you're lying in bed awake just on the precipice where you could fall back asleep for another hour or two if you wanted, and then you realize you can.
• When you're able to genuinely make another person(s) laugh.
• A head massage.
• Peeling the plastic sticker off new electronic devices.  
• Getting a good grade on the final exam of a class you hated and realizing you will never have to deal with that teacher's boring lectures again. 
• The countryside in summer.
• When I get home and my son hears me come in and I see his little smiley face from down the hall, and he goes PaPaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
• Fresh sheets on your bed.  
• When you have had water in your ear all day, and then that nice fuzzy moment when the lukewarm water leaves your ear!
• The absence of high stress.
• Peeling dried glue off your hands.
• Being smiled at.
• A poo in your own bathroom after a weekend away.
• Dipping your hands in a bag of beans.
• Having someone else wash your hair. I don't care what gender you are, if you are massaging my scalp, I love you.
• Smelling a new tennis ball.
• As a female, taking off your bra after a long day. It feels like the hills are alive with the sound of my free chesticles.  
• Opening up your windows after a long, cold winter. When the breeze brings the smell of flowers and freshly mowed grass into your bedroom.
• Getting home from being out on the town, the feeling of finally taking off your high heels. It feels like your heels are sinking into the floor, but it's soooo good.
• Farting after hanging out with people you can't fart in front of. Very very relieving.
• Cleaning out my ears with a Q-Tip.
• The first scissor cut into a fresh piece of construction paper.
• Finding out there was indeed one more chicken nugget when you thought there were none.
• Sneezing!
• Going to sleep with a bad headache, and waking up without one.
• Getting a package in the mail.
• That split second of silence when you go under a bridge while driving in a nasty rain storm. .001 seconds of bliss.
• Blowing your nose after it's been really stopped up and having a nice satisfying glob come out and suddenly, all at once, your nose is totally fine, no longer running, no longer stuffy, and you can breathe again.  
• Seeing the city limits of your hometown after a long drive back home.
• Turning the pillow over to the cool side.
• Sitting around the table after a big meal with yoir closest friends sharing in good stories and laughter. I could do that for hours.
• Being married for 20 years. It's no longer "romantic exciting love" but it's a type of love even more pleasurable. Too many divorces happen because this pleasure is underrated and people think new love is better.
• Your kids sleeping through the night.
• Catching a legendary pokemon with a regular pokeball.
• Playing a streaming video on the internet completely to the end without any <buffering...> pauses, looking straight at you youtube
• The smell of a new book.
• Walking in the door of the house you grew up in, smelling mom's dinner cooking.
• Completely losing the outside world while listening to headphones.
• Removing the sticky stuff that comes on gift cards.
• Bubble wrap. Pop Pop.....Pop...Pop.
• Sitting down after a long stand!
• Sitting down in the shower.
• Driving. People see it as a chore but it really can be wonderfully engaging and mediative. 
  
• Swimming naked.
• Having a fresh-from-the-dryer load of laundry thrown on top of you.
• Hearing that gentle crumbly sound your vacuum makes when it picks something up. (Or alternatively, mowing through really tall grass)
• Going pee after you have been holding it for a long time.
• Waking up feeling rested. It happens so rarely for me, that when it does I feel like I can take anything on that day.
• Taking off cold wet socks and putting on dry new ones
• Biting into a piece of freshly baked bread. mmm. 
• Having the song on the radio finish at the exact instant you pull into your driveway and turn off the car.
• Buying an epic present for someone else and then being like, yeah I know, I know!
• When you have an appointment with someone, but that person cancels on you last minute, giving you the opportunity to sit on the couch all night in your sweatpants. That night you're not alone because you have no social live, you have just received the gift of time.
• That feeling of accomplishment you get after cleaning your home from top to bottom.
• Creating something, then looking upon your creation and saying "I made that, that is mine."
• Being greeted by your dog.  
• Sitting around a campfire. Nothing like it.  
• The moment you see the waiter/waitress approaching on the horizon with your food. Drool.
• Being the first one to step on a freshly fallen snow. Especially when it's a bit frozen and you get that incredible sensation of hearing that crrrrraaaaaccccckkkkkk. Also, kicking dirty snow off my car. I love that.
• Silence.

  
  

  If you read this far, way to go! There were thousands more comments in the original thread. Take a moment and appreciate these small things, and always be on the lookout for the things that bring you joy.

  
  

When It's Cold Out, Head North

I have two things to say tonight. The first is about the past week, and the second is about me.

Number one. On Tuesday, Quaker Cottage headed north with eight families to start our January residential.  In case you haven't heard about our September residential and are confused by this word I keep using, residential is basically a four day retreat that we take with the families. We go to a place called Corrymeela near Ballycastle and have adventures and stuff.  The mums and the children are split up during the day. The mums do their own thing. The afterschoolers do another thing, and the babies cry, drool, and poop all day – you know, baby things.

A view of the north coast

Like last time, I was with the afterschoolers. My experience with the last group on residential left me with quite a lot of anxiety going into this one. I had such a difficult time last time, and there were a few children this time around who could have been just as much trouble. Thankfully, we (the staff) had learned a few things from last time, and they served us well. I’m happy to say that we managed to survive the four days without much trouble! Instead of letting the problem children run wild, we gave them an outlet. While the group of kids took a tour of castle ruins, we took one child out to hide chocolate coins for everyone to search for. It was wee things like this that helped us avoid some messy situations.

I tried to make notes of notable situations each day, but so many things happened that I missed most of them. Here are the ones that stood out:

Day 1:

• We took the kids to a beach for a treasure hunt. I was in charge of hiding all of the clues. Unfortunately for us staff, we had not considered high tide when we planned this outing, so we had to improvise. I hid clues everywhere, but it took me longer than I planned to hide them. As a result, I was running all over that beach to speed things up. Sometime during that running, the camera in my pocket popped out. I had no clue that it was missing. Later, I asked one of the other staff if she had the camera, and she said yes. So we still had the camera. Excellent! But wait! She actually had our other camera that the mums were supposed to have. We didn’t learn that the camera had been missing until some random person returned it to Corrymeela. Apparently they knew where to take it because I had taken a video of the kids singing “We’re all going to Corrymeela!” Anyway, boring story, but significant to me.

• While at the beach, the waves were really crashing on the beach, and the water was very cold. Despite being told to not get wet, every child got wet. What can you expect when you take children to a beach? One boy in particular got impressively wet though. Here’s how. He walks into the water and sits straight down in it as a wave washes over him. As one of my co-workers pulls him out, she asks him why he did that. His response: “When I go on holiday with my daddy, we sit in the ocean like that.” The only difference is that now it’s January and far from a summer holiday.

• There is an awesome park in Ballycastle where the playground is like a pirate ship stuck in the sand. For whatever reason, the designers of the park chose to anchor ropes into the ground that were set at perfect angles to trip you as you’re running. I watched the kids trip over those ropes at least 12 times that day, and I couldn’t help but snicker a bit after one boy tripped over the same rope twice in less than ten seconds. (He had also tripped a couple of times prior to this last incidence, but this one set him off. He began to kick sand at the rope with vigor.) Apparently, life doesn’t like you laughing at the misfortune of children though. Shortly after, two children began throwing sand, and as I started to chase after them, I suddenly found myself flying through the air. Not only had I tripped over the rope, I did it worse than anyone yet. The rope had caught me about six inches above my knee. I don’t even know how I made it to that point as there were a bunch of other ropes I had to get through before the rope was that high. However it happened, it was hilarious, and I accomplished my goal of stopping the kids because they came to laugh at me. The line from where the rope caught my leg was still visible 3 days later. That’s how hard I hit it.

Day 2:

• The same boy who had sat in the water on day one also gave me a line to laugh about on day two. Because of the cold weather, we had to bundle up. This boy came up to me at one point and said, “Silly Andrew! You left my hat on the bus!” I was not aware that I was in charge of his hat. Out of fear of his terrible retribution, I didn’t make that mistake again.

• While at the castle ruins, our tour guide told us of the luckiest room in the castle. He took us to it and told us that if we all touched the floor, it would bring us luck. After each of us had touched it, he said, “However, with luck comes consequence. What I did not tell you is that this was once the floor of the toilet.” I had a good laugh from that.

Day 3:

• By day three, I was pretty tired, so I forgot to take notes. However, one thing stands out. We had a wee romance building between a boy and a girl. Each day, we watched as the boy grew more confidant, and he eventually gave her a heart that he drew. This girl showed the heart to her mum and declared, “I’m skundered!” Yes, skundered. Never have I heard this word in any real life context. I wasn’t even exactly sure what she meant by it. In case you’re wondering and to save you the trouble of looking it up, it means she was embarrassed. 

And then on the last day, we woke up, cleaned up, and packed up.  Back home for lunch and a nap on the couch.

Now for part two of this post. Now I talk about myself a bit, and this is where it gets contemplative and somewhat serious. It’s where I ask you a question, and you spend the rest of the evening considering the answer until you go to sleep and forget about it.

We watched a movie during residential called Rise of the Guardians. Yes, it’s a children’s movie, and yes, I enjoyed it. Actually, I really really like most children’s movies, and the one over residential inspired me to watch another three during the weekend. There’s something about children’s movies that captures my imagination. There’s nearly always something magical in them or creatures that don’t belong in the real world. Every time that I watch such a movie or read a book of fantasy, my mind is opened to new worlds and experiences. It brings me back to my childhood. I’m sad to say that I feel like most of the imagination that I had as a child is now gone, but watching children’s movies nearly brings it back. And it reminds me to do everything I can to keep some magic alive inside me because as soon as I lose that magic, I know I’ll become a boring adult. Not that being a boring adult is a bad thing! It’s just not for me. (sorry boring adults!)

Another thing that is so wonderful about children’s movies is that they tend to have a moral to the story or some sort of deep question that kids may not always pick up on or have any interest in. Well, I do, and they often are some of my favorite questions. While watching Rise of the Guardians, one of these questions popped up. Here are just enough details of the movie for you to understand my point – The guardians are characters like Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost, etc. Jack Frost doesn’t know who he is or what his purpose is, so at one point Santa shows him…wait, you know what? Watch it for yourself: What is your center?

What is your center? Let that sit for a second. What is the core of your being? Who are you? What do you stand for? What do you bring to the world? … What is your center? It’s like each of these questions at once, and to be honest, it’s an incredibly hard one for me to answer. For the past few days, I’ve tossed around words like silliness, innocence, fun, energy, child-like… But none of them feel just right. I think the last one is the closest though.

So what is your center? I don’t think this is a question that you can answer straight away. I’ll be thinking a lot about it in the coming weeks. So if you feel up to it, find your center. Share it with me if you feel like it, but share it with the world too.

The Highs and Lows (and the lows that are actually highs)

So you know how when you put something off for one reason or another and suddenly you are staring at a daunting pile of lots to do?  And you know how you feel like it’s such a big pile that you don’t even want to start?  And that just makes it even harder to start…

Welcome to the life of a blogger, Andrew!  We have been without internet in our house for somewhere around 2 weeks, and because of this, I’ve put off writing a new blog post.  Unfortunately, each day adds more material to my arsenal of thoughts that I want to share, and at this point, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that if I don’t just write something about the major happenings since my last post, it simply won’t happen at all.  So please enjoy as I try to remember anything from the past few weeks!

Christmas was a bit sad because I missed people back home, but New Year’s Eve made up for it completely.  Becky, Steffi, and I invited friends up to the house for the evening.  We made pizzas, played games, watched television, and engaged in some merry chitchat.  And then the fun started.  We moved from the house to the cottage to watch fireworks from the balcony overlooking Belfast.  There was no great display of fireworks or anything, just some small ones bursting here and there, but it was really fun to stand out on the balcony with friends and hearing the ooh’s and ahh’s as we watched bursts of light pop up all over the city.  Awhile later, we found ourselves sitting inside listening to Jonny play guitar, and suddenly, the mood turned.  We sat around the room, and for no reason in particular, we began singing praise songs together.  Have you ever been in a moment where you consciously think to yourself “things couldn’t be any better?”  I was the happiest, most content and at peace that I have been in recent memory, and I wouldn’t have minded if I didn’t sleep at all that night.  And I think that if we hadn’t run out of songs that we knew, we would have continued to sunrise.  It brings a smile to my face just to remember the night.  

Then it was back to work a day later, and to be honest, I was happy to be back to work.  After a week and a half, I was missing seeing the boys and girls.  Things returned to a normal routine for the most part, and the children were as silly and fun and difficult as always.  One night, one of the afterschool boys sitting next to me during snack time suddenly leaned over to me and wiped his buttery face right on my shoulder and then turned back to the others without so much as a thought that this was out of the ordinary.  I would have paid to see the surprise on my face.  Another night, I was driving one of the buses, and we drove over a section of road which vibrated the whole vehicle.  One boy exclaimed, “The bus is tickling my tummy!”  Man, I love these kids!

How else do I know I love these kids?  Because one group of them leaves us at the end of this week and that makes me sad.  After four and a half months of being here, I have grown extremely close to many of them, and knowing that I won’t be able to see them after this week breaks my heart.  They are my friends as much as the people from NYE are my friends.  It’s even harder knowing that many of them need a place like Quaker Cottage to give them a break from life’s hardships.  

 

[Time out - Everything I wrote before this break was written several days ago - Time in]  

We just had our first leaving party.  I’m a bit gutted to be perfectly honest.  I have kind of been dreading this evening because I didn’t want to think about saying goodbye to one boy in particular.  He and I made this connection that I didn’t really have with anyone else.  I could go on describing how great he was and how much his friendship meant and how I know he really looked up to me, but I don’t feel up to it at the moment.  All I will say is that I had to hold back tears at least four times throughout the evening.  Oh, and we also said goodbye to four other children tonight, each of whom I’ll miss loads for separate reasons.  *sigh…  Two more days of saying goodbye to the rest of this group.

I guess I’m pretty sad about saying goodbye, but you know what?  I’m actually really happy that I’m feeling sad.  That must mean that I’m doing my job.  I’m here to love these kids, and if I feel like this, then I really do.  

(There, see! I’m happy, so please don’t worry about me!)

This picture is not me. It's from Google. Because we are not allowed to share images of the children from Quaker Cottage, it's purpose is to help you visualize the children we said goodbye to and the feelings that were expressed.

Holiday Update

The past week has been a mishmash of emotions for me. I can officially say that I’ve reached the homesick stage of my year away. Perhaps it will pass quickly once the holidays are all finished with, but for now, I definitely miss my family and friends. On the bright side, I’ve been receiving cards from people and churches back home for the past two weeks. It’s a wonderful feeling to receive a card in the mail. Many of the cards are from people I don’t know, but I imagine this is what a soldier feels like when he/she receives cards from random children. It warms me up a bit knowing that people from Iowa, W. Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and all over took the time to send a few words to me. 

We have continued working on our 8000 piece puzzle, and it still has a LONG way to go. When we first started it over a month ago, I thought that we could finish it by Christmas. Not to toot my own horn (ok, yes it is), but I happen to be a very good puzzler. For that reason, I figured it could be done. My thinking was that a 2000 piece puzzle takes me less than a week, so 8000 pieces should take 4 times that long. Wrong… The sorting of pieces from the massive pile adds an exponential increase in time. I’ll keep the updates coming. 

Steffi, Becky, and I visited Dublin for a few days prior to Christmas. This trip made me realize that I am not a city vacationer. I would much rather spend a couple days hiking or camping than walking around a city looking in museums and at architecture. However, I do still enjoy cities, just not as much as some people. For me, Dublin was a bit of a letdown. I’m not sure if it was because it’s a difficult place to visit when on a tight budget or if we just didn’t know what to look for, but I wasn’t all that impressed. We did see St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Dublin Castle which were both pretty neat, and for a bit of craic, we visited a pub to listen to some traditional Irish music. Our original intent was to visit the Christmas market in Dublin during our first day there, but once we arrived, it became clear that it wasn’t going to happen. The market was in the courtyard of Dublin Castle, and as we entered the courtyard, we saw a large Christmas tree and two stalls at the far end. For whatever reason, all of the other stalls had gone home. Oh well! I think the most exciting thing for me in Dublin was my ability to find coins everywhere. I often find and pick up coins in the street, but this was ridiculous. I found upwards of 25-30 coins in under 2½ days.  Sweet.

On Christmas day, the three of us had dinner with L’arche Belfast volunteers. It was fun meeting and chatting with new people, and I discovered something about myself while there. Whenever I am at gatherings where there are children present, I naturally gravitate toward those kids. So at this dinner, there were 21 adults sitting, eating, and talking away, but there were also three children present. At one point in the evening, I discovered that I had just spent the past half hour playing a game with a 5 year-old. Even if I’m not with the kids, I’m thinking, “Man, I really wish I could swing on the swing set with them.” It’s not that I don’t enjoy being with adults. I do, but sometimes the conversations bore me. What does that say about me? Am I not mature enough to sit and have an intelligent conversation with adults? Well, obviously I can do it, but sometimes I’d rather not. Do I relate better to kids than adults? Maybe so. I’m in the process of figuring out if this leans toward being more of a good thing or a bad thing.

And one last random thought before I sign off. Growing up, I always thought that adults were super smart. To me, it seemed as though they always knew what to do and how to do it. Now that I am an adult, I realize that this was not the case. I am just as clueless now as I was back then, and most everybody around me is just trying to figure it out along the way like me.