a wednesday night in the north side

this afternoon i went over to northminster church and helped fix the food for the dinner and "new community" event that they are hosting during the week. it was a nice opportunity to meet with some new people and do something useful. i like to cook, and this is cooking in a massive way. some of the people i knew a little bit, others i just met. the thing i like about this church is that it doesn't seem like a church so much as a place with a nice vibe. it affords me the opportunity to do some community work, which i didn't previously get to do much of because i didn't have a vehicle by which i could do this. obviously, churches are the way to go if you are looking for some organized place where you can do some service work.

i have thought since my hospitalization last spring that i was supposed to be doing something with my life now, but i have been stumbling along trying to figure out what it is. i have been attending this church since last winter after my initial surgery in november. i returned back to the sunday services once i was out of the hospital and able to drive again. i enjoy the music, the casual feel of things, and the to-the-point but not over the top messages that the minister, sammy williams, delivers. i don't feel preached at so much as i feel enlightened.

prehaps what i am supposed to be doing is more community based work, and i am hoping maybe austin will join in sometime. right now he is not interested, although they seem to have a small group of teens in their group that he might enjoy being with. i am not forcing church on him, as i absolutely hated that when i was his age. terre, his aunt, attends and is a member and it was terre and danny, her husband, who first got us to go there. danny wanted me to go, and tried to get me to go in the months before he died. i didn't go then, but did go after he died and somehow feel like that was meant to be.

in any case, i never envisioned myself leaving the house to go out to anything during the week, but now i am in a creative small group on monday nights and volunteering to help do the cooking on wednesday. it seems all good, and i don't feel like i am missing anything by NOT going. actually, i gain. i did meet some new people tonight, and understand how it feels to be gingerly creeping along in the spiritual world, seeking and watching, and then settling a little bit.