Good Work

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, from the rooftops of the Old
City. I went back up to the roof-tops on Thursday night. It
was still stunning. 

What does it mean to be fighting the good fight?

For about a month now, I have been interning at the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development. It is an amazing organization doing the kind of work that I feel good doing in a place that truly needs it. ICSD believes that the core of the environmental crises is spiritual. That we, as human beings, have lost a spiritual connection to the earth. This is a good approach. It is a path that runs along-side my own.

I might spend too much time in back alleys of
the Old City...Nope, no such thing.

This is a place where I can stretch my wings. Where my thoughts and ideas are not seen as at odds with the organization.

Dome of the Rock from the roof-tops.

I have had many moments in the past few years in which I have been unsure about the path I am on professionally and even more unsure about the people I feel forced to work with. Consulting is not easy work; starting my own firm is crazy; Intentional communities have no money to spend. But this job is helping me put it into perspective. I am seeing my talents in a way I have never experienced them before. I am, possibly for the first time, seeing myself as an important part of a team. I am not just a job description, nor am I a cog in a machine, I am a project manager.

Rosemary in the park on Shabbat. Yes, all those purple
flowers are rosemary bushes. 

In this job, I am responsible for the “Green Seminaries Project” in its current incarnation. Currently, the project is a study and report of faith-based environmental education at schools for religious leaders in North America. The study encompasses almost 100 schools rating them based on their environmental education with the intention of eventually improving environmental education at schools throughout North America.

Other than my Senior Plan at Marlboro, it is the most fulfilling non-spiritual work I have ever done. (In the realm of spiritual work I am including cooking for feasts, singing, dancing, and almost all my fiber arts work.)

But this job is not sustainable for me. Foremost, I will not be in this internship for more than other week and a half, there is another month of the program after my internship is over. Then I will go back to the states. 5,000 miles away from this amazing organization.

Johanna, the friend I  am traveling
 to the North with, looking into
 an archway on the roof-tops. Why
 this archway is up there, I could not
 tell you.

I will return to my home, to the life I feel connected to, with the memory and knowledge that there is a place for me in the world of sustainability. I am reassured that I am on the right path, professionally. I will find the communities that need me, and I will find the ways to assess and help them.

Spring time in Jerusalem, the Judas Trees are in bloom

Of course, for the time being, I will find a job, probably in Boston, that gives me a regular pay check while letting me go to Grad School and travel to Vermont for my monthly rituals. For the time being, I will think about insurance and Orthodox neighborhoods and college loans. For the time being, I am a stranger in a strange land, and that is ok.

Sculpture in the Mamilla Mall

This coming weekend, I am visiting Cousin Gila again, after that I will take a trip to visit pagan sites in Northern Israel. Spring is here in Israel, and it will soon be in New England as well. I will return home and find out what it feels like to have nine months without winter.

But I now know, I am fighting the good fight. And I am not alone.

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