Sunday, August 29, 2010

overwhelmed & completely appreciated

If it feels like I've been throwing a lot of random information at you these past few weeks, know that I feel the same way--orientation, training, and starting work has been a whirlwind of information overload. I have a feeling it will stay like this for most of the year, but hopefully my brain will figure out how to process it all and I won't feel so overwhelmed all the time.

It makes me wonder how the kids who move here handle all the transitions and new information, and that leads me to the conclusion that all of our programs here are not so different from MercyWorks. This isn't a new theory, as Katie told us at Wednesday Community Night that plenty of people have called MercyWorks the highest functioning home at Mercy (sometimes, though, we act like the lowest functioning).

Wednesday Community Nights are our weekly time to reconnect, have dinner together and reflect on one of the program values or on a relevant topic. This past Wednesday we got pizza and ice cream as a reward from our Orientation Retreat, when we won the gold at "Orientation Olympics" to build community. Our reflection was the reading and signing of the community covenant that we wrote during orientation followed by an affirmation circle. An affirmation circle is simply everyone taping a piece of paper to their backs so that everyone can write an affirmation on it without anyone knowing who wrote what. I loved reading what people wrote on mine afterwards, knowing what they enjoy about me.

Today, Sunday, means another house meeting (less fun than Community Night, and more on the business side of things). Because I went to the Daley Home staff retreat on Friday, I have today off and don't work until 2 on Monday. :)

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