Kitchen crew

Never a dull moment with these ones.   To all work, here's time for rest and fun. 

More about June

Hello everyone my sincerest apologies for being late in posting, we have had several schedul changes this past week and a half thus some things have been thrown off balance. We have been kept crazy busy and are normally exhausted upon arriving home after work.

Where do I begin, I spend essentially all my time with my fellow interns, we do have time apart form each other, we get along and actually have fun together. Finding a balance of quiet and rest and laughter is really good for all of us.  Down time helps us decompress from our long days or week. 

We will have some of the interns over for muffins and treats and tea, or just to hang out and talk, or laugh, most of the time we spend laughing. I normally end up on our kitchen floor laughing so hard that I start to cry. 

We have been postcarding than heading to downtown choice chain, we make our way back to the office for lunch. We eat than go into office time, which is call backs,  homework or reading an assigned book. Or other odd jobs that need to be done at the office. Along with a bit of free time.  Than we all pile in the vans and head to another choice in a different location than earlier in the day. 

We are no longer doing highway projects in Calgary as there was an amendment made prohibiting us from doing so, the amendment was made to hinder our efforts at reaching others.  We are not letting it stop us from working hard and doing our work, we just have to change how we do some of it.   Since we don't have highway projects I no longer have that time to write blogs as I was doing.  I haven't been able to find a time that works efficiently for writing a post.   However I will do my best to keep you all updated and in the know on what's going on. 

We have now been alternating who is leading the choice chain. We the interns take turns leading the group, which means we are in charge of deciding where to put who, what signs they have, who's the designated phone person.  Camera person. Also keeping track of the time. And knowing the location we are supposed to be at. 

I have gained  experience in different ways, I am more comfortable moving around my sign rather than just holding it like a shield. Becoming one with the sign so it's an extension of yourself is handy. When I can easily move or turn I can than reach more people and raise the question of what they think about abortion.

I have had some good conversations, as well as bad, I've had people change here minds party, or pro-lifers become more convicted in getting involved. I've had people change there minds completely, and have watched as others have changed people's minds.   Some conversations are truly heartbreaking and difficult to have at times.  

While I was in mass on Sunday  i was reflecting on our work and why we are doing what we are doing, why we put up with the harsh words and slandering things people say, or the negative things that start to pile up.  And. I looked up and a mom was just taking her baby out of the car seat in the pew ahead of us. Seeing that beautiful bundle of joy reminded me even more why we are doing what we do, why it's always worth it. Worth the rough days and times when I wonder if I'm making a difference. Because if we can change one mind that opens the door for saving lives in the present moment and the future. However looking at this bundle of joy my heart grew sad because at that moment somewhere in Canada a life was being snatched away by abortion. How can we be taking the lives of 300 children every day here in Canada that's a hundred thousand children every year.  That knowledge can weigh upon my heart specially since we see the images every day we use them to reach out to others.  After seeing them so often a person could become numb to it, however when I look at those signs we hold, when I think that it's happening right at that moment I know I can't stop trying or give up because they don't get a choice they don't yet have a voice there fore we need to be a voice for the voiceless. 

Photo shoot

 

Four month interns and staff mini photo shoot. 

June 23,2017 

My roommates, and I 

 

The three musketeers and our honorary kitchen member.

Hiking trip

After a really long week it was decided that we would go for a hike as we get off work earlier on Fridays.  As it is summer and we can have high stress days it's good to take the time to enjoy life and the beautiful weather we are having.

Never gonna break my stride.

Some days when I'm out post carding I'll get a song stuck in my head it think of a song to get me through the last legs of the morning. Break my stride seems to be a fitting song. At times we are faced with negitivity and obstacles trying to prevent or hinder our work. 

Beginning June update

We had a political lesson and talk with Cameron Wilson. Learning some really important things, and how to get more involved with politics.  Really cool how we learn things to do with pro-life but also will aid in other areas of our work.

Downtown Calgary choice chain. We are kept busy with our activism, and reaching out to so many people. 

When it rains

I think we can all find those times when we feel stuck, and knowing which way to go or how to move forward is difficult.

Officially reached  #379 blog views today. 

My internship is in full swing, our days are packed with activities,activism,homework, and training.  

Learning to adapt to changes of schedule,miscommunication, and also learning from mistakes made along the way.  There are times when things are more difficult than others or you are really tired from being on your feet postcarding. However there's always something to keep me going. There are moments of just going through the motions, and times where one needs to just stop and Breathe. My favourite thing about postcarding is seeing the different gardens and flowers. Of course stopping to smell the flowers every once in awhile is also wonderful. 

Snacks are one of the things I always have with me,since we are on our feet a lot and do a majority of physical activity. You learn to zone out the noise or things people shout  at you. You have to put it out of your mind because it's not worth thinking about. What they say won't change what your doing or why,  though it does have the potential power to hinder you mentally, that's why you have to choose to ignore it so that it will not effect you negatively or have an impact towards how you are  doing your work.

At first I used to keep track of the times people swore at me or I was given the finger, or birdie as the staff sometimes refers to it as.  

It's tempting to yell back at them and speak my mind however that is not how we do things. Trading insults is a waste of our time when we could be using it to have a beneficial conversation with another person.  

Though our training we gain tools and experiences that are actually relevant to things other than pro-life work though they help aid us in order to do our work efficiently.  

Some people have told me that I am wasting my time and that people won't higher me since my internship was with pro-life, which I think is what a fair amount of people are afraid of which is why a lot of people tend to steer away from the work or subject all together. 

However I know that in a lot of cases that if they were to not higher,  based on that than it would be considered discrimination. Or it's not a place I would want to be working or investing my time and energy in. 

There are aspects of my job that I really enjoy and others that it can be really difficult.  

Rain or shine we do our activism. We do stop if there is a thunderstorm or a safety hazard.  

We have moments when things don't go as planned and schedules change, sometimes we have to adapt quickly or change our trajectory. 

We had a flat tire and no spare which set us back one morning.

One thing I particularly like about highway project is that it gives me time to reflect on my day and how or what I could have done differently that way when I get home I can just decompress and not think to hard about work. 

Highway project is an easy way to reach people, we don't necessarily get the conversations like we would at choice chains, however t gives us an opportunity to really impact people in high numbers. 

With highway project we can read a book or write an assignment if it isn't to windy. I like to type or write up drafts for my blog posts or try to. 

Our days get long and busy, so finding time for journaling or letters or a blog post can be challenging. Wanting to keep connected with people outside of work is also important. 

A majority of it comes down to time management. I am finding new ideas or ways to manage my time and figuring out what my priorities are or need to be.