Last week my housemates and I embarked on a five-week spiritual retreat in Ignatian spirituality called Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Living. The retreat runs every Saturday morning for 5 weeks and requires 20 minutes of intentional prayer every other day during the week. The retreat works to integrate the spiritual/religious aspects of our lives with the everyday mundane happenings of everyday life. It focuses on seeing God in everything, and having spiritual experiences outside of church. The program is really amazing already, and encourages candid conversation about our spirituality, where we have come from, and where we hope to go with it.

Through this past week, everyone in my house has spent a decent amount of time in private reflection and prayer, and I think we are all looking forward to tomorrow when we can start our second session.

Work this past week was busy and a bit overwhelming. This was the first time so far that I have had no choice but to work up spanish-only patients. At first I spoke very quietly and mumbled the little bit of spanish that I speak, but by the end of the week, I was more confident in my questions and ability to understand, and communicate on some level with my patients.

Last night I went out to an 80s night with a couple of my co-workers and my housemates. Besides my experience the other day of seeing my patient sleeping on the sidewalk when I was walking home from a late-night coffee run, this was the first time so far that I have looked across a room and seen many of my patients out in public. The 80s night was an eclectic mix of Yakima's best.

This afternoon one of the custodians from work is taking me to Costco because he wants to buy us some meat to eat- for no other reason than out of the goodness of his heart. I can't wait for our little road trip!!!

Lastly, the past two weeks I have spent a lot of time contemplating the idea of voluntary simplicity, and how refreshing of an idea it really is. It is truly amazing how little you need to be happy. Besides a few crucial outfits (for me: gym shorts and a t-shirt and my work scrubs), food, and a book, there is just not that much more that I need to live on. I can easily go a week without checking my email, days without my phone, over a month without turning on a television, over a month without meat or luxurious food, and over a month without taking a car to a destination within 2 miles from my house. These don't even feel like sacrifices as much as they feel like liberations. It is an amazing feeling to sit around on a porch and listen to music together and play cards together and debate exestential questions without having to be connected to the world outside. Granted, i do use my computer and phone to keep in contact- but the idea that I don't need either is an amazingly refreshing feeling.

hmmm cute guy at the coffee shop two weeks in a row. note to self: 10am on Friday mornings- start showering and putting on non-oversized clothing when getting coffee.