an ITY bity blog post...

First of all, THANK YOU all SO much for the support recently, its truly truly been needed. Weve been going through a bunch of challenges recently, and PRAYERS are definitely definitely needed!! Love you guys!

 

so... what on earth does the title of this blog post mean?? well, it refers to SIMPLICITY, ACCOUNTABILITY and INTENTIONALITY, three of the buzzwords we talk about a lot in Rostro. I wanted to write a bit on what ive been thinking about each one recently...

 

Simplicity

 

One of our pillars of the program, I always looked at simplicity with some sort of desire. Wouldnt life be great if we put down our cell phones and got off Facebook and went outside to play? Or if we didnt have 8 different varities of peanut butter or 14 kinds of toothpaste to choose from? So I decided to enter into a year where our options are limited. We go to the corner store to buy ketchup or mustard, no choices for either. We take public transit everywhere. We share 2 phones in our house of five people, with only $10 prepaid minutes and 90 prepaid texts a month. We have a limited amount of clothes here. We take military showers, cook most things from scratch (no microwave, either!) and rarely use the TV.

 

So where´s the struggle? Sounds pretty simple, you may think. During this vacatin time, Ive wondered if Im not living simply enough. Im using only my monthly stipend, but I still go to the 2nd stage shelter every Saturday (something that many of my students cant afford). I share the phones with my housemates, but do use it from time-to-time to keep in touch with graduates of the shelter. These two examples are probably the biggest struggles with simplicity for me -- still having such a simple life, but knowing it is nowhere close to actually living in full solidarity with my neighbors.

 

 

Accountability

 

This one has actually been really good for me recently. My house has started to check in once a week on what we are struggling with, to hold each other and ourselves accountable for working on these things. It has helped me immensely, to remind myself to cut down on cyber time, keep spending time with the neighbors, share often and genuinely with my housemates, etc. I like having the weekly perspective too (kind of like a weekly examen, if you will) of how I did that week -- reminding myself to be gentle with myself and others, yet still striving for the best. Speaking of examen, I am really enjoying the Jesuit Daily Examen of Conscience, as well as the Magnificat daily Lenten companion (thanks Dad!) during this time... check them out if you get a chance!

 

 

Intentionality

 

Haha, if I had a nickel ... (Mark dont finish that) for every time we used the word intentional, wow! Here, we think about EVERYTHING, and the possible results of each and every choice. This ties in nicely with our policy of no gift-giving -- which Rostro set up to make things fair to all Ecuadorians, to hopefully not create dependencies on us, to focus on our mission of being with the people. But what about when my students graduate? I cant give a gift, but can I do a card? Or, for neighbors, does a photo count as a gift? Intentionality also means thinking about who you tell what to, and when. In community, it is essential to communicate when there is a problem -- but of course there is an ideal time and place for everything. And sometimes being intentional involves declining an invitation in order to balance our time better with all our friends here (at work, in the various neighborhoods, etc.).

 

 

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I hope you take some time this week to think about simplicity, accountability  and intentionality in your lives. Id love to hear how (if at all) they play out or what you think of these themes!

Love always,

Isa