Ways to See the World

Let me start by saying that I do not consider myself a religious person and therefore my musings on the subject can obviously be taken with as many pinches of salt as you would like. For the last two years however I have been living and working at a Christian centre. I grew up with religion and over the past few years have lived with two other families, one with a Hindu temple in their front yard, and one where the Orthodox Bishop came round for tea on a regular basis. Despite having been around religion most of my life, or perhaps because of it, I became increasingly angry and frustrated with any form of organised religion. I grew up a Jehovah's Witness and to me religion became a way of holding me back. It was a way of saying you can't do this or that because God/the Elders wouldn't like it, because you're a girl, or because we are 'no part of this world'. I can't pinpoint exactly when I decided all of this was sanctimonious crap but I quietly stopped

Peace and Quiet.  That's basically what my last two and a half weeks have been about. I left Corrymeela on 30 September and came to stay at my dad's house for a bit. It hasn't been exciting or eventful and that was the point. I've been alone for a good chunk of that time and it's been really nice to have that space. I must be more introverted than I realised but having spent two years surrounded by people at work and at home (since they're the same place) it's been pretty refreshing to have the run of a house with no-one but the dog for a bit of company. That, and a double bed all to myself. I've made the occasional foray into civilisation but on the whole enjoyed the down time. I've been applying for jobs and researching a lot and figured out more about where I'd like to go next. I've also watched a considerable amount of TV (less productive but needs must) I'm ok with not knowing where exactly that is but have a general idea of t

One of the things I've loved most about the roles I've taken on is the last two years is being able to listen to peoples' stories. Some of that has simply been a normal part of living in a place with people from all over the world, working alongside different groups that come up, and having really interesting conversations over dinner or a cup of tea. Partly it's also my job. Part of my role is to sit down and have 'one-to-ones' with people. These are essentially check-in meetings where volunteers talk through personal issues or professional challenges. They can be formal and scheduled or informal and fairly random. Mostly I listen and help them to talk things through. It's not my job to be a fount of wisdom and advice and quite frankly I don't have the answers to life's questions. What I can do is be a useful sounding board, I can listen and I can ask pertinent questions. So why do I enjoy them? People have commented that it must be hard to hea

One of my biggest challenges here is not having the space to let my guard down. I find it exhausting keeping my emotions to myself and for the most part I do a pretty good job at keeping them at arms’ length so I don’t get swallowed whole by them and I don’t spill them into community life. It feels pretty selfish of me to let this get to me but in many ways the whole point of community life is to support each other with those things which is probably why there are ongoing discussions as to whether to call this a ‘community’ or not. My problem seems to be that when I feel completely powerless that guard slips and the smallest of things will spark a torrent of emotion over something that is actually very small. Part of me know that this is not healthy means of existence at all (all of that has to go somewhere and if you’re a bottler and have been telling yourself to let something go for so long eventually that bottle will explode when it reaches tipping point) and the other part kn

These are the times when I love my current role. Part of my job is helping people de-stress and recharge by helping to organise fun things and doing little trips to places. I can’t go with them for all of them but I do get to help make them happen. If you don’t have a car the North Coast can be a challenging place to visit as the public transport system is dire (unless you’re heading to Giant’s Causeway that is) so I get to help make those little trips happen to places you can’t get to unless you’re planning to walk everywhere for a very long time or have a car. I’ve taken people to watch the sunset at Kinbane Head, dropped people off at Murlough Bay to walk back over Fairhead, gone to explore some caves in Cushendun and many other things. This may all seem pretty irrelevant but actually helps people unwind when the entirety of living and working at full capacity gets tiring. It’s about saying we care about helping you de-stress and we heard the wish when you said you’d love

I was recently set the challenge of restarting my blog so here we are. Restarted. Things have changed a little since I last wrote this. Not overly much though admittedly. I am still volunteering at Corrymeela albeit in a slightly different role now. People have asked me what the heck I’m still doing here and plenty of people joke that I’m clearly incapable of leaving. Maybe that’s true and maybe it isn’t. The important thing is that I’m here because I want to be. Not because I couldn’t find anything else or that this is a stopgap but because it’s the right place for me to be right now. Summer is here again and with that comes new faces and familiar ones. Both faces breathe new life into community and work and the sense that we’re all doing this together is recharged. It’s also a challenging time of year as our groups stay for longer periods, there are more people around and the One Year Volunteers are beginning to think about goodbyes. Lots of emotions all round. This yea