Powerful beyond Measure

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.  -Marianne Williamson 

(a quote shared with me by one of my best friends Caro, currently a 2nd year JV in Belize around this time last year, funny how much more it means to me now, a whole year later)

Reaching the t-minus 1 month mark before my departure came at me ¨slowly then all at once¨  (to quote the beautiful love story that is TFIOS )  However, I am forever grateful for the opportunity to encounter Boston and Cape Cod at that very milemarker with some of my favorite peoples embarking on the same adventure, some on different continents, the jesuit volunteer international journey none the less.  The JV Class of 2014.
The group that joked about having a late departure reunion-love fest in Kansas (what we saw as the only convenient place to host because it served as a midpoint for the west coasters, east coasters, midwesterners & southern gals)
Next thing you know, here we all are staring at the galaxy of stars above us on the Cape and realizing that most of us will have a whole new set of stars to look at in just a matter of a few short weeks (pretty cool huh?)
Time on the Cape was spent reflecting on this transition period, bonding over the experience, living in community, cooking, reading, resting, tea-drinking, playing card games, participating in a murder mystery game, visiting Boston, watching the World Series, making s´mores, walking the beach, exploring and just spending some good quality time together.  We even phoned some of our other late departure friends who couldn´t make it to the reunion.
What struck me most about the weekend though were two things:
1) how well we all lived together.
 It makes me more excited to live in my community come the end of the month as well as cook meals (between the 9 of us, we had some pretty delicious recipes & everything just ran so smoothly)
2) as cheesy as it sounds, how much we shine. as individuals and together. We really do bring out the best in each other, maybe even challenge each other in a good way of course.

You could say we´ve only known each other for two weeks
but it sure feels like a whole lot more.
the beginning of a beautiful friendship I´ll say...
and I´ve got a feeling that it´s powerful beyond measure.