Sakartvelo 6/4/10

It's Friday morning and I have the weekend off! Yesterday evening we completed our second AVP Georgia workshop with a group of Abkhazian IDPs (Internally displaced persons)who have been in Sakartvelo since the first conflict about twenty years ago. (see photo below!) Many of them are students. They were bright and enthusiastic! Many of them will be part of our training for facilitators which will begin on Monday. We expect to have about fifteen in that workshop. From here on out an AVP marathon begins. After the T for F I will spend Saturday and Sunday (6/12 & 6/13) working with youth in an orphanage in the mountains. For two days, in the mornings we will do a mini-workshop with youth 10 - 13 and another mini-workshop in the afternoons with youth from 14 - 18. On Monday 6/14 we will begin a full three day workshop with members of the orphanage staff. Following that we will do a workshop with South Ossetian refugees from the 2008 conflict. That workshop will end on 6/20. My flight home is in the wee hours of the morning on June 22nd. In the midst of this hustle and bustle my hosts are determined that I will see Sakartvelo and have an opportunity to experience their culture and customs and so today and tomorrow Misha Elizbarashvili (member and former clerk of the worship group) and Maia Gonjilashvili (our Georgian AVP facilitator) will pick me up to go on "excursions". I am grateful for their attentiveness and for the wonderful Georgian tradition of hospitality! As I move through these days filled with hustle and bustle I have been called to more and more time in silent prayer. That deep listening - opening to Spirit - help me to know my center and remain grounded. I am reminded of Brother Lawrence - an early monk in the Christian tradition who was so spiritually centered that people traveled great distances to hear his wisdom. Brother Lawrence spoke of the practice of the presence - an understanding that we can be just as close to God while peeling potatoes in the kitchen as we can be in our places of worship - reminding us that we only have the present moment. I find that I slow myself down just a bit as I begin to rush through preparations - the gathering of food for workshops, planning exercises, choosing gatherings and light & livelies - to be aware of Spirit in the midst - to give thanks for that moment. When I am able to do this I find my days are filled with Light and Joy.