Hello loving family, friends, and followers!
It has been an emotional day in Hamilton as we approach the end of our journey. As a last reflection on our day, we have decided to each decided to share our experience of L`Arche with you all.
Hello, Allie here! This week has been one of the most eye opening weeks I have experienced. I have learned from everyone involved with this comunity and this trip. I have learned a greater sence of patcients, love, and understanding through the core members of the L`Arche community and I will be forever greatful for this experience. My heart will forever have pieces in the city of Hamilton in the community of L`Arche. Today I experienceed the most joy and sadness I have experienced in awhile. The sadness came from the departure from the home who graciously served me and another member of our group dinner for many nights of our journey! When departing, I went to say good bye to a member who rarely connects with other people, who I had grown close to. The moment he asked if I would return, I had to contain my emotions, because I knew how upset my answer of "No, I am going to Erie tomorrow" made him. Not only did this break his heart but mine. This was followed by my happiest moment, when another core member in our hosting house made us all laugh with her silliness and goofy nature! She is truely a light of love! She has taught me to love unconditionally and laugh everyday! I will miss L`Arche Hamilton beyond explination, but I would like to thank you all for being there for us in prayers and in thoughts and here every step of the way!
This is Maureen! I can't believe that today is our last day. I am filled with so many emotionst in this moment that I don't even know how to express them all in this post. I am filled with saddness and guilt that we are leaving these amazing people after they have grown close to us and we have grown close to them. I am also filled with excitment because I soon get to go home and share my experience with others and live out the lessons we have learned on this trip. Because I have spent so much time in the past at the Daybreak community, I never thought that I would have such a special place in my heart for Hamilton after this week. However, I will go home and always carry Hamilton
with me forever. I would like to finish this off by saying thank you to all the people who supported
us and I would like to thank everyone at the L'Arche Community who welcomed us and accepted us into their hearts. Their love and kindness will never be forgotten.
This is Laura! All I can say is that I came here with my heart intact, but I'm leaving with it broken. It is a good broken, though, because my heart is being put back together in a way that I never knew it would be. And I have learned that the only way the Light can shine through anything is if the object is broken....
Megan here! There are so many things I'd love to say about this trip and just so little time. I have been changed on this trip in ways I never thought possible. I have been opened up emotionally and spiritually in ways I wasn't even aware existed. This has been one of the most memorable and life changing experiences I have ever been fortunate enough to live out. I need to take the time to express my gratitude and love to all of the wonderful people we met here that were so abundently welcoming to us. I need to thank my amazing team without whom this trip would not be the same. Last but certainly not least I need to give a big shout out to you our loving loyal readers. Thank you for supporting us on this journey.
Hello! This is Katherine. Like everyone else, I came to this trip with expectations that I didn't even know I was carrying that were broken as the week progressed. Of everything I experienced, I have to come back to one of the themes within my own life-- the meaning of relationship. Throughout this week, we have been in relationship with one another and with everyone we met at L'Arche Hamilton, Stratford and Daybreak, and in return for our willingness to enter into relationship, our reward has been ten thousandfold, as hearts were opened up to us in ways we couldn't have imagined. All I can say is thank you to everyone I have met this week.
Hello! Leigh typing. This week has been a total whirlwind, and my head is spinning so much that it's hard to settle my thoughts enough to type them into our blog. What I know with certainty is that I have encountered many beautiful, pure, raw, valuable, human things at L'Arche-things like love, community, kinship, music, solidarity. For a service trip, on which one assumes she will be giving, I did a whole lot of receiving. I hold many thanks for L'Arche and the people and memories it now represents for me. I cannot wait to spread the love I have learned here to the rest of my world!
Brandon here! I'm amazingly overwhelmed at the intensity of this week's experience. I have no way to put into words how the overwhelming feeling of welcomeness we have received on this trip has offered solace to my soul. The time spent with the core members has taught me many things, but the one thing it has taught me the most is in order to give you have to receive. To be mutual is the key of acceptance. God Bless:)
Howdy everyone, Lily here! Boy oh boy has this week been a whirlwind, or what? In just one week, so much has changed. We've changed. I think that it's safe to say that we're all very different people than when we first arrived. I have learned so much from these people and about these people, and also about myself. I'm excited to go back to the "real world" and share what I've learned with the people I love. Love is the key to everything!
Thank you so much for all the support! We have had an amazing trip to L`Arche and we will forever be changed by this experience! We are going to spend tomorrow traveling to see Toronto and Niagara Falls before returning to the states! We will miss L`Arche will all our hearts, but we cannot wait to be back home safe and sound!!
No comments:
Post a Comment