Friday 5 May
A three-quarter day! I'm sitting right now waiting to meet Simon (the Mac programme worker), who may be sort of talking with me regularly in lieu of a counselor, but at the moment, he's not come yet. Maybe there was a miscommunication--I'll find out soon, in any case.
Cleaned lots of toilets, showers, and sinks today, since the guests have all left on the morning ferries. It's amazing to me how fond I feel of some of them, and evidently they of me: a few hugged me and said things like, "Thank you for all your help and hospitality." Me--could they be talking about me? I am stupefied. Something I've done has been useful, appreciated, and mutually touching. "Small miracles," as Martin says, and also "strange days," says Markus.
The farewells at the jetty were quite stirring: hungs and smiles and Iona staff turning cartwheels, doing "the wave," and singing "Ameni" one more time with the departing guests as their ferry pulls away.
Matty's quite exuberant with his singing and chocolate and hugging--I couldn't keep up with him in spirit in cleaning this morning. But a really great thing happened. When I was starting to get terribly down, I remembered some words from the liturgy we use in the mornings: "we will not offer to God offerings that cost us nothing." It's okay that there are regularly times when I'm in discomfort or frustration or annoyance, because it's a part of a larger, healthy service that can be slowly but richly rewarding.
Anyway, although it's sunny outside and all, i'm going to nap. That's what half-days are for, right?
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