Know That You Are Blessed

Our last day at L'Arche Hamilton has officially come to a close. Fortunately for us, the gifts that the L'Arche community has given to us will last a lifetime. 

Today we had a very laid back day that began with a closing reflection from Lynn, a very important member of the L'Arche community. We then went to lunch at 541 Cafe and had some of the best coffee shop food any of us had experienced. Afterwards we made our way James Street to decorate the gifts we got for each of our houses that welcomed us into their families. Later, we went to dinner at our houses and presented them with the gift, which was a picture of all of us in front of the L'Arche Hamilton sign with a decorated frame specific to each unique home.Presenting those gifts was something none of us will ever forget because each house absolutely loved them. Lastly, we came back to spend a bit more time with our home base at the Sherman House while watching the Emperors New Groove 2, then had our own final reflection later on.

More specifically, one of the most powerful parts of our last day was the final reflection with Lynn. To end a very beautiful and impactful reflection, a core member and her came around the room and individually blessed each of us. What she said to us is:

Know that you are blessed

Know that you have a gift

Go out and share your blessing

These are words we all definitely needed to hear. 

Know that you are blessed: This week, L'Arche has made us realize an unbelievable long list of reasons why we are all blessed. The people involved in L'Arche, whether it be core members or assistants, have welcomed us into their homes and hearts and have shown us what love really is. They have taught us that the smallest actions can represent something much bigger, such as touching noses, a pat on the back, or even just a few seconds of eye contact. These actions can show that you have built a relationship with a person that doesn't build relationships as easily as many people may. These relationships are a gift that we will not take for granted. We have been blessed with the opportunity to build these relationships with the assistants and most importantly the core members and through these relationships we have realized the overwhelming amount of love we were gifted this week.

Know that you have a gift: Coming into this week, many of us didn't know what to expect. However, I am positive that all of us have discovered the different gifts we have, thanks to our experience at L'Arche. During this time we have all grown very close to each other by watching each others interactions and the formation of bonds between us and core members. Our own final reflection was an activity that involved each of us saying positive things about everyone in the group. The fact that a week ago, we barely knew anything about each other, but now we can see a novels worth of nice things about each other really says a lot about what this trip has done for us. We have watched each other grow into beautiful women that each have unique gifts to offer to this world. Whether it be our laid-back and thoughtful personalities, our resilience, our thirst to improve ourselves, our ability to form deep connections with people. our want to care about each person we meet, or our appreciation and zest for life, we realize now that we all have a beautiful gift to offer this world. 

Go out and share your blessing:

Fortunately, we have all already made plans to stay connected as a group, and also potentially staying connected to the L'Arche community. This trip has made us realize that our gifts we have to offer are important, but equally so is actually putting those gifts into action. The L'Arche community has shown us that can be so inspiring to use our gifts for good and this was an important lesson for all of us. While we can get caught up with school and work, we need to remember that we owe ourselves to the world. It's not fair to humanity to hold back what we have to offer, because we learned this week that we can make a hugely positive impact on the people and the world around us.

All in all, this trip is something that we are all walking away from as changed people. We are walking away with a renewed sense of community, a new sense of purpose, a better understanding of human dignity, and most importantly, hearts filled to the brim with love. 

The unconditional love and support we received this week was awe-inspiring and is something that none of us will ever forget. We can only hope that someday, you will be blessed enough to have an experience like we did. It's honestly very hard to put into words how amazing these past seven days have been. L'Arche is not something that can be expressed, but only experienced.