dances with elk

left: Us posing at Estes Park sign, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park

This weekend, nine of us traveled to Rocky Mountain National Park to experience a quintessential Colorado fall day - a hike through aspen groves to a mountain lake, followed by a picnic lunch and elk-watching. The beauty of the Park is hard to describe. It is a rugged beauty, almost austere with its dramatic peaks scratching high and treeless into the baby blue sky. But it is also a delicate beauty, and the keen observer is well awarded by graceful harebells (like bluebells, but larger and darker blue) or heartleaf arnica (butter-yellow petals and heart-shaped leaves) or pearly everlasting (clumps of circular creamy white blossoms). In fact, austerity and delicacy intertwine in the Park; at over 7000 feet, harsh weather arrives so soon and stays so long that every creature, no matter how delicate it appears, has hidden a broad repertoire of hard-nosed tactics to survive to see another spring.

Our hike wound through a valley en route to Cub Lake. Whoever said that Colorado's 'other gold' is the aspen trees in fall was right; at points along the hike, we were entirely surrounded above, below, and beside by flaming yellow aspen leaves quivering in the wind. The very air seemed transformed, more illuminated, alive,energetic, as if you could see the golden molecules bouncing around leaf to leaf.

left: Cub Lake

Cub Lake was well worth the 2.3 mile hike. It was vaguely oval-shaped and half-filled with water lilies that sadly were past their blooming prime. I read a poem once about a woman lying on the grass being a 'bowl full of sunshine' and indeed we were, all sprawled out on a lovely boulder beside the water, watching a duck amble along in search of the trail mix we (accidentally!) dropped into the lake. Soak it in! is all I wanted to do, filling my eyes with evergreens and aspens, water and lilies, beauty unfolded beneath the blue sky.

left: female elk moving left across a meadow. About 5 minutes later, a rather flustered looking male came in hot pursuit

And more fun was yet to come! After our hike, we chose a picnic spot that overlooked a meadow, in order to view the seasonal 'bugling' of the elk. Picture this: a herd of around 10 female elk, calmy grazing at twilight. Enter stage right a male elk, epitomizing the meaning of the word 'strut.' Tossing his impressive rack of antlers in the air, he sizes up the situation and boldly approaches the female crowd. At about 15 feet away, he rears back and bugles, emitting a bellow that begins in bass and ends with a triumphant tenor. The females graze, unaffected. The male bugles again. More grazing. And so on.

I assume the end result of bugling, once the females tear themselves away from the grass at their hooves, is tiny elklings in the spring, but we didn't stick around long enough to make sure. However, as we left the Park, the streets were just lined up and down with cars unloading family after family, stocked with snacks and lawn chairs, to watch the elk. Colorado dinner theater at its finest! Which brings up an interesting question - Could elk bugling be a convenient opportunity to broach the subject of the birds and the bees with young children? Continuation of a species, broadcast live. I wonder if any parents have tried it...But as one housemate pointed out, how exactly would you address the issue of monogomy ("Mom, why does the guy elk bugle to all the girl elks?") or, for that matter, why people crowd to watch what in the realm of humans occurs behind closed doors. Nonetheless, for a born and bred suburbanite, such a close encounter with nature at its most necessary level was fascinating.

Overall, the day was magnifique, bursting with color and life and fresh, fresh mountain air. Glory be to God for the richness of creation.

I-opener

[This is a sneak-peek at an essay that will be in CVV's fall newsletter, due to come out at the end of September. Let me know if you want added to the mailing list! It's free =) ]

For me, coming to Denver as a Vincentian Volunteer was a pivotal life change; for my parents, it was a chance for a family vacation. In mid-July, we saddled up our big blue van and headed west from PA. Two weeks and seven states later, we merged onto I-70, which escorted us through Kansas’ amber waves of grain and into Denver. As night fell, the downtown skyscrapers rose to meet us, framed against the blue peaks of the Rockies. My heart raced at finally arriving in the city that was to be my home for the next year. What will I learn here? I wondered. How will I be changed?

To my surprise, answers have unfolded beneath the very road we drove to Denver; I-70 rumbles non-stop through the three neighborhoods in north Denver served by my agency, Cross Community Coalition. All three struggle with common scourges of the urban poor: lack of quality educational facilities, lack of green space, and heavy concentrations of large industries. Our neighborhoods’ zip code, 80216, is the most polluted in Denver, and the only nearby high school reopened this fall after having been shut down by the city for its failing performance.

Clearly, north Denver residents have greater concerns than I-70’s proximity. Still, the highway drones ceaseless noise and complicates inter-neighborhood travel. It has even forced the local elementary school to reduce its playground size so children wouldn’t be hurt by debris careening off speeding trucks.

Of course, I realized none of this while zooming wide-eyed into Denver. To me, I-70 was a means of transit, nothing more or less. But after weeks of listening to residents and observing neighborhood life, I can no longer view I-70 as neutral. Instead, I suspect that it is a classic case of NIMBY: bring on the highways, but Not In My Back Yard! (And how does a city decide in whose back yard to build a highway?)

On a recent trip to Austria, Pope Benedict said, “Jesus Christ does not teach us a spirituality ‘of closed eyes,’ but one of ‘alertness,’ one which entails an absolute duty to take notice of the needs of others and of situations involving those whom the Gospel tells us are our neighbors.” As a Vincentian Volunteer, I am indeed learning to notice with wide open eyes the present realities of our society, including seemingly benign chunks of concrete, in order to work more effectively for a blossoming of abundant life for all persons.

Sing it with me now: Yode-leh-eeh-ooh

Once a year, as part of their ongoing fundraising, Bill and Mary Frances raffle off the chance to eat a meal at the house, prepared by the volunteers, Last night the raffle winner, Janet, along with seven other guests, came to our house to claim their prize. We prepared most of the afternoon - cooking, cleaning, and re-seeding the lawn. It was quite an elegant dinner - stuffed mushrooms and bruschetta for appetizers, chicken marsala and baked zucchini as an entree, and peach cobbler with ice cream for desert.

But the best part (in my opinion) was the entertainment. Rachel P and Rachel B devised some pretty ingenious ways to share with our guests what it means to be a CVV volunteer.

First, we introduced our group to the tune of the Brady Bunch theme song:

"Now here's a story of a man named Billy / who created a volunteer program with his wife / The vision called for 12 young adults / to serve a year of life...Then one day when Bill sat down with Mary Frances / And they knew that it was much more than a hunch / That this group would somehow become a family / And that's the way we became the Vincentian Bunch!" followed by 'doo-doo-doo's' and dancing =)

But wait...there's more!

After dinner, we took the liberty of performing a montage of songs from the great theatrical classic, the Sound of Music, altered to introduce each of us and our worksite. A small snippet for your enjoyment:

[sung to tune of 'Do Re Mi']
Bethany: "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read, you begin with

All: "ABC!"

Bethany: "When you sing, you begin with Beth - A - Ny"

All: "Beth - A - Ny"

Bethany: "The first three notes just happen to be Beth - A - Ny"

All: "Beth - A - Ny"

Bethany: "Beth - A - Ny - Fa - Sol - La - Ti...Let's see if I can make it any easier.
Cross Community Coalition / is the place where I work. / We care about the environment / And tutoring children is a perk."

[Did I mention what a strange feeling it was to sing my own name repeatedly? When do you ever do that?]

Erin: [still tune of 'do re mi'] "I work at house of Sacred Heart / My name is Erin O'Sullivan / I help give women a fresh start / And that brings us back to Meg Oh Oh Oh Neill!"

[Sung to tune of "I have confidence"]

Meg O'Neill: "I have confidence in children / I work at Mt. Saint Vincent Home / I have confidence that they won't be a alone / Besides what you see I have confidence in me!"

[Sung to tune of the Yodeling Song]

Budd: "High on a hill was a man named Budd, Yode-lay-ee Yode-lay-ee Yode-lay-ee-oo! He works with Medicare, Medicaid, and all that crud, Yode-lay-ee Yode-lay-ee Yode-loo."

[Sung to the tune of "How do you solve a problem like Maria?"]

Nick: "How do solve a problem such as poverty? How do you serve the homeless on the street? How do you do your job at St. Francis Center?"

Betsy: "A mail sorter?"

Daniel: "A shower washer?"

Nick: "A Nick!"

And on, and on. Our great encore was "So long, farewell!" after which we paraded up the stairs quite dramatically and waved goodbye to all our guests while singing loudly in various keys. I think it was a pretty big hit, and we're already thinking of possible encores.

Point of the story: life is so much fun with a soundtrack!!!

Other point of the story: cooking, cleaning, and all domestic chores are so much more fun when done communally!!!! Thanks, housemates =)

Felix, worms, and dice games

Quick update: Felix did no significant damage to the mission sites in Honduras. There was some minor flooding at the sites along the coast, but nothing more critical than that. Thank you for your prayers!

Life is so full lately, and I am grateful! This weekend my housemates and I attended a composting class offered by Denver Recycles and Denver Urban Gardens. Two master composters, who took a 10-week class to earn their titles, ushered us into the nuances of transforming your leftover food, yard refuge, and paper scraps into thick hearty black dirt stockpiled with nutrients. I learned that even dryer lint and coffee filters can be composted! Also, we are currently deciding on whether or not to venture into verma-composting, a fancy name for worm composting. Because with 12 people living together we will most likely have a steady supply of veggie scraps the whole year, and because in winter traditional composting (i.e. heaping leftovers in a pile outside) takes a lot longer due to the colder temperatures, worm composting could be a fine option for us. Basically, we would buy a 'worm box,' about four by two feet and standing waist high, create a bedding out of shredded newspaper, place about a pound of Red Wriggler worms inside, and feed them all of our table scraps. Pretty cool, huh? I've never heard of such of things, but hey, we don't have any pets, so why not? =)

Also this weekend we spent Saturday night at our house with a group called Transitions, who are young adults with developmental disabilities such as Down's syndrome. Together, we ate eight pizzas and played a dice game called LCR - quite fun, very little skill involved, and just enough unpredictability to make it interesting. The 'differentness' of the Transitions members varied from person to person; some spoke with a strong speech impediment, others had distinct facial features, and others acted in ways usually inappropriate for social settings, like reapplying makeup (all of it) during the game. But there was so much more to see beyond the instantly apparent. I talked for a long time with two young men, Danny and Michael, who work together at a grocery store and share both an apartment and a passion for superhero movies. Michael won a joke book during the course of the night and kept us giggling with jokes (For example, "Why did the mummy go on a cruise?" "He needed some time to unwind!")

I imagine that caring for Danny, Michael, and all of the youth there was a challenge for their parents, and perhaps a financial and emotional strain beyond what most parents shoulder. And as far as I understand, pre-natal diagnoses of genetic defects such as Down's syndrome have a very strong correlation with the decision to abort the child. So I was struck, in the midst of tossing dice and chowing down hawaiian pizza, by the courage of the adults that chose to love these children who spoke funny and got their left and right mixed up and would probably never 'succeed' in the common worldly sense of the word. But also I couldn't help but think again of Jesus' surprising image of himself, hidden in the distressing guise of the hungry, thirsty, naked, cold, and (I venture) the disabled. Why does it seem that the more intently one looks at life, the more it seems to be a fairy tale, in this case the kind where the prince is disguised as a frog or beggar? It seems that both courage and imagination are needed to love others well.

To conclude, another awesome outcome of the night was that I won a starbucks card, soon to be put to good use, especially because fall is coming!

Peace to you all.

Felix

Please pray for the people of Honduras and Nicaragua affected by hurricane Felix - tens of thousands have lost homes, and dozens have been killed. Many of those affected are very poor Miskito Indians, who live in the low-lying coastal areas along the Caribbean. The Franciscan mission where I spent last summer, Mission Honduras, has its main site much further south, near Comayagua, but also has sites throughout Honduras, including closer to the coast. So far I haven't heard if the Mission sites were damaged, but I'll keep you posted.

While I was in Honduras, I spent a weekend on the Atlantic Coast, at Tela. We toured a pristine national forest and snorkled in crystal clear water, and I met a few garibundi folks, darker-skinned residents of the coastal areas who trace their heritage through Caribbean islands to Africa. One gentleman in particular has stuck in my mind - his name is Benjamin (the same as my brother) and he was selling earrings made from coconuts on the beach. We had a good chat about life by the ocean and our different cultural backgrounds. I pray Benjamin is safe, and all of his neighbors.

There is also more info on bbc.com, under "The Americas," along with photos of the damages inflicted by Felix. Thank you for your prayers!

Yanneth

An immense joy so far - in the afternoons, I have been informally tutoring a ninth grade student, Yanneth (pronounced 'Janet') with her math homework. Yanneth speaks and reads very little English, so the majority of my time with her has been spent simply explaining the problems to her. Many of them are word problems, such as figuring out how many persons will be needed at the community garden to collect 30 bags of weeds if 1 person collects 2 bags, 2 people collect 5, etc. As I see it, math is hard enough without not understanding the language in which it's written! I think back to my time in Costa Rica, struggling to understand what people were saying to me and feeling very displaced because of it. Can you imagine experiencing such a discomfort every single day at school? The exertion needed to understand the foreign words spinning out of your teachers' mouths?

And yet despite it all, Yanneth is a joy to work with. We laugh at the mysterious nuances of math lingo, and wrinkle our foreheads trying to figure out hard problems. And when finally the light bulb flickers on, and she grasps the purpose and solution of a problem, the relief and satisfaction reflects from her forehead to her shoulders, and her hands spring into motion, scurrying to transform the concepts she understands in her mind in Spanish into fluent English sentences to put on the paper. I am honored to experience such moments with Yanneth, and I find myself experiencing awe as I witness the expansion of her mind and her grasp of knowledge. Teaching reverberates with me.

photos!!! (I hope =))

Happy Saturday, all! Today is just packed - after fiddling at the computer for a while in a desparate attempt to share with you some photos, I'm going to the newly remodeled Denver Art Museum with some housemates, since today is a FREE day! Living on a 75$/month stipend gives a certain extra sheen to the word 'free' =) After that, we're going to a downtown festival that's happening all Labor Day weekend - it's called 'Taste of Colorado' and features tons of local restaurants and artisans, along with games and rides.

Below, I put a link to the Kodak Photo Gallery where I put some photos of my time here so far. I took a bunch this morning to show you, but I couldn't figure out how to upload them, so for now these are shared photos from friends. I hope you can access the link! Here it is: http://www.kodakgallery.com/MyGallery.jsp?& Be warned - the pictures are fairly blurry. Sorry! I'm still working out the kinks of the best way to post photos. There are a few that are clear, and you can see my housemates, where we live, where we were in the mountains for our opening retreat, and some views of Denver.

ESL class was fabulous on Thursday - I have 8 students currently, all from Mexico, 2 men and 6 women. They are such a fun bunch, eager to learn and laugh and ask all kinds of questions about the mysterious English language. We talked about letters, numbers, the verb 'to be' and other sundry items.

Also, yesterday (Friday) since my agency isn't open, I rode with Betsy to the Broadway Assistance Center, a food bank that gives out foods of all sorts on Mondays and Fridays. After sorting through racks and racks of breads to weed out the moldy or stale ones, I took my station at the vegetable table, and handed out fresh veggies to customers. The pace was fast and non-stop, and I got satisfyingly dirty handling all the food. It was such a great change from the rest of my week, which still consisted mainly of daydreaming about what I could do in the weeks to come and trying to set up some concrete activites to do. It looks likely that I'll be able to tutor pretty consistently in the mornings at the local elementary school, working with the 5th grade class on math and social studies.

Yesterday afternoon I went to Annunciation school to help with their afterschool program. Before it started, I was making some copies for the social worker and guess whose photo was above the copy machine?? Our dear Virgen of Guadalupe! (Read the old post entitled 'Our Lady of the Copier' to understand the irony =)) The afterschool program was fun, I played chess with a few middle schoolers and appreciated afresh the energy and wackiness of elementary school students.

One more thing (so much news today!) - I'm going to be co-teaching a confirmation class at Annunciation parish with Franciscan Brother Joe. It starts next Sunday, so we have a week to prepare. I'm so excited for this, our class is 13-16 year olds who have had one year of confirmation training so far and will be confirmed this Easter. Please pray for us as we prepare to teach these students about their faith!