On Thursday August 4th, our Skagit Against Slavery coalition hosted a Call+Response movie screening. It went really well, 140+ came, we had 8 booths with various ways people could respond to the issue of human trafficking..whether through sponsoring a placard in a WA state rest stop, buying TN coffee, going to an upcoming golf tournament to raise money for IJM, and/or donning a 'stop traffic' t-shirt.
Later that week I went to a Witness for Peace fundraising dinner called
Cafe Justicia. It was quite delightful even to my droopy eyes and weary feet. Id actually been reconsidering going to Oaxaca, but after the event Im less sure! Im reminded of how eager I am to go to area where so many of the families I know here in Skagit come from, a place that many can't return to nearly so easily. I also really want to learn what micro enterprises are happening there, what efforts are being taken to quelch the pervasive affects of NAFTA, and how FOOD, FARMS, and MIGRATION are really interconnected. However weighing all I have going on, and how much the trip is, I'm still not sure if it's best for me right now.
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With hosting that event last week as well as the AK youth group and events at the migrant camps, I'm quite exhausted. I kept going this week, trying to continue with my regular commitments, plus going to a meeting with the Sheriff and Police Chiefs yesterday regarding a new policy that would affect undocumented immigrants, and taking the Sanchez kids to the Skagit County Fair. Yet Im increasingly aware that i am heading toward burning out and I need to make changes.
Gratefully, we had a group visiting this week from Florida who set inner healing prayer appointments with us individually, and then spoke on inner healing to a larger audience Mon & Tues nights. my appointment was very much needed and im still unpacking it.
This afternoon at my Skagit Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Services job, I read aloud a letter (interpreting the letter from English to Spanish) to a woman from her daughter who is in Tacoma Detention Center. It detailed abuse she endured from her boyfriend that the mother knew little about. She stopped me a one point saying she couldn't hear any more. I couldn't either. 'Why do men do this to women?" she kept asking me in a flood of hysterical tears. "Why, seniorita?" Tears were my only answer, so we sat in tears as I let her cry, and unable to hold mine back anymore either.
There is so much beauty and pain around me, I'm immensely grateful. However sometimes it feels as though the latter dominates. I'm realizing I need a break, a vacation, to turn the computer off, my phone off, not plan events, and not respond to crisis calls.
Even though I'm on the domestic violence/sexual assault hotline next week, I need a break NOW more than ever. So, phones coming with, I'm off to a cabin on a lake for the week!
