Perspiring, clammy, sticky, hot – these words describe how I
have felt for 98% of the time since arriving in Tucson. The weather here right now is hot and humid
(normally it is not humid in Arizona, but it is monsoon season), and for
someone who is coming from an environment that didn’t get much hotter than 60
degrees in a year, it is quite an adjustment.
We bike everywhere we go, which means entering into the heat
with helmets and sunscreen, pedaling to our destination and arriving with our
bodies attempting to cool down by sweating!
Our house is cooled by a swamp cooler which operates by blowing humid
air into the house which evaporates and thus cools the air around us. Essentially our bodies are doing the same
thing when we get hot. We sweat and the
water evaporates off of our bodies, cooling us down. So I have come to the realization that being
sweaty is just something I need to get used to during the hot months of the
year.
Even though I am starting to grow accustomed to the norm of
being hot and sticky, I am still well aware of how uncomfortable it is! No matter how uncomfortable it is though, it
is my body’s method to cool down.
This first week of living in community has been filled with uncomfortable
moments too. We have been working hard
this week to set up our living space and learn about each others’ living habits. As we are a group of 10 individuals who are
just meeting, it is only natural to come across some tough conversations such
as food ethics, cleaning, quiet hours, social habits, energy consumption, theological
stances and so on. As we have been discussing
what our expectations of living in an intentional Christian community are, we
have definitely had moments in which some, if not all, of us have felt uncomfortable.
Similar to the case of being uncomfortably sweaty, our
uncomfortable moments in conversation have been necessary to the foundation of
our life this year in intentional community.
We are all coming from different backgrounds, but we have made a
commitment to make this community our home for the year. What God has planned and designed for us is
not always comfortable, nor is it always comfortable to live out our beliefs
and make decisions that Christ would on this Earth. But we can find comfort in knowing that God
uses uncomfortable moments and situations to help us grow in spirit and in
love. So next time you are sticky from
sweat, remember that it is a necessary means to cooling down.
Dear Kendra and Karl:
ReplyDeleteA belated welcome to Tucson and Habitat for Humanity!
We at Habitat look forward to working with and learning from you, and we're grateful that you're so generously committing your time and talents to us and to our community this year, including Karl's commitment to the very fine work of Community Home Repair Projects of AZ (CHRPA). Scott Coverdale, the director of CHRPA, is a very faith-filled man, and brings the Gospel to life in his work.
As regards our current climate in Tucson...
As kids in the long hot dry first-half of the summer, we'd finally come alive again out of the torpor of the harsh flat summer heat as soon as the pyrotechnic advance-team of kettle-drum thunder and incessant lightening-cracks of the dark swelling monsoons to the southeast of us began to signal imminent relief. We'd only emerge from cover, though, like estivating toads out of their dark underground depths, when the first drops of rain finally beat liberation upon the hard-packed earth.
Swamp cooling ceased to work at all in such humidity. But we lived outside again, so we couldn't care less.
And then all too quickly, the Sturm und Drang of the annual monsoons abruptly ceased and the slow cooling of the earth would be matched overhead by the subtle changing refractions of the light, the harsh glare of the summer sun giving way once again in ever so soft transition to another Sonoran autumn.
So again, welcome to both the harshness and subtle beauties of this place, including any of our grand dramas and our smallnesses -whether experienced environmentally, culturally, or spiritually. Here's wishing you the contrast of both spiritual estivation (retreat/regeneration) and unexpected spiritual flourishing in the rough poetry of this small/harsh/subtle desert place.
Yours in service –
Michael McDonald, director, Habitat Tucson