New Orleans on My Mind

It's not that I haven't been thinking lately. I just haven't been sharing online in this blog very much....I don't know why I thought you might even be interested...But you are here! Thanks for checking in.

I just received an email from Susie at Arlington Street Church in Boston saying that plans are now underway to make another service trip to New Orleans. Great news: it coincides with the annual New Orleans Jazz Festival! If you want to be with people who know how to have a great time, this is the party--I mean, service trip--for you!

Although I never made it to the Jazz Fest last year (way too much rain and mud for me to feel like it would be fun), I loved my time in New Orleans. Drinking chicory coffee and eating beignets, crawfish, and gumbo, walking the Lower Ninth and the French Quarter, greeting people in shops and on the street while wearing my Boston Red Sox hat, I felt myself the outsider and the witness bearer. But to have a local resident recognize my presence and hear them say things like, "Thank you for not forgetting us," well, my heart still wells with emotions: humility, sadness, joy, and gratitude for the opportunity to stand with the people and the city of New Orleans...

With a good team of volunteers from First Church, Boston, and Arlington Street, I worked on a couple of small projects at the First Church, New Orleans and on two homes in the Lower Ninth--the area where the destruction was the worst and the rebuilding is slow going...I have very few skills in the construction domain, but I could wield a broom and a paintbrush, whack a couple of nails and talk with folks on their porches. There is a place and a job for just about anyone who can be patient, flexible, good humored and willing.

If you are interested in bringing your service skills to NOLA this year, consider joining a team from our Boston UU churches. We'll be heading down during the last week in April to the first week in May. Arrival and departure dates will be flexible, accommodations basic and inexpensive, and the experience unforgettable.

I'll be in touch with more information about the trip as details are formalized.

Thanks for reading along.

Breathe

This image from the Boston Globe pretty much sums it for me right now....Thanks for checking in.