One.Week.

One week from now, I will be back in New York, playing with the dogs, sitting with my family, officially done with the Benedicta Riepp program and moved out of the Mount. I don't know how I feel about that.

I'm excited to move on to the next phase of my life, but content with where I've been for the past year. I'm looking forward to having my own place again with my own way of doing things, but I know I'll miss the rhythm of life at the monastery. I'll miss the constant stream of sisters milling around at any time of the day. I know I will enjoy having my own place, but I also know I will really, really miss how things have been. I haven't had any consistent living situation for the past 5 years. When I get comfortable some place, I just want it to stay that way for a while.

One of the things that is staying the same is my workplace. I hope to continue my work at the day care as my ministry, not just my job. I don't want to lose sight of why I love working there just because I will now be getting a paycheck at the end of the week. I don't want that to be my motivation. Ever.

With all this talk of what I would like and what I wouldn't like, everyone here is well aware of the amount of time we have left. In fact, our fearless leader just returned from more than a week away and some of the first words out of her mouth were, "counting down the days yet?" "Should I bring tissues to dinner Thursday?" Uhh yeah, the sisters are more than aware of the time frame.

I am going to enjoy this last week. I'm going to do my best to take in meal time, conversation, class, games, people, everything. Even dishes....maybe ;-)