Recognizing special relationships

The day started as would any other. The billowing clouds packed the sky and the sound of rain dancing around us stifled our mixed emotions. The now normal routine laid itself out. Ryan got us going with his favorite quote, “Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be, for my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced or cried aloud under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade and yet menace of the years finds, and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” To the library, Care Center, Eagle Shield, museum, and Sobriety Festival were where our team would reach out a hand.

I looked at the faces around me; they had been engrained in my brain as if for ages, although I had only first glanced upon them merely six days prior. Tom had talked a lot about fate, or g-ds plan for us, and somehow, somewhere I felt that some of the people surrounding me were meant to cross my path. That their faces were so familiar that fate, or whatever you want to call it, had been tying our strings together long before we even stepped foot in the same room.

With that in mind, I set out for the day. We all shot out of home base and went our separate ways. When it was time for lunch, we all recongregated on campus and as I was scrambling so get anything meaningful to write into this blog. The majority of our team had spent the day cutting veggies and preparing for the sobriety festival. One member told me he had spent all day peeling potatoes. I thought to myself; great, peeling potatoes makes for a great lesson, but then I was thinking about how Tom had told us that everything has life and meaning. The potato had a rough peel that needed to be stripped back to find what all that work was for. The earth was a mirror image of us. Underneath all of our standing parts, the trees, mountains, imperfections big or small, there was a fire beneath it all. The cores inside everyone were quickly stripped away in such a short time that the thought of having to leave all of these people was upsetting. Everything had finally come together and our little family of misfits was finally not just in my head, everyone recognized the special relationships, you know how it is.

Entry submitted by: Natalie Rachman - Highland Park, IL