Personality-by-Number

One of the greatest challenges of living in community has been navigating the intersections of seven very different personalities. Over the past two months, each of us has been been learning how the others communicate, relax, express affection, and react to stress (which is perhaps the most valuable piece of information when it comes to diffusing community conflicts!) As a group, we've been learning what "clean" means to each of us and who among us has the highest tolerance for messiness; who needs constant social interaction and who needs regular time alone.

At our last community night, we all took an informal Enneagram test to learn more about our personalities, in the hopes that doing so would help us to foster greater harmony in our community. The Enneagram groups personalities within 9 types, each assigned a number and a descriptor. Without naming any names, let me just say that we learned that our community is composed of a perfectionist (a One), a questioner (a Six), three adventurers (Sevens), a romantic (a Four), and a peacemaker (a Nine - good thing we've got at least one!)

I have to confess that I'm a huge fan of personality tests. I admit that it may be problematic to assign unique individuals to specific personality types on the basis of a few yes or no questions, but I also think it's pretty amazing how, in our community at least, most of results were pretty accurate. It was fun realizing that in just two months, we've gotten to know each other well enough to laugh at how aptly the type descriptions matched the idiosyncrasies of each of our personalities.

I've been trying to use some of the Enneagram's information about my personality to live in a healthier, happier manner. According to our amateur test, I am a romantic with strong perfectionist and peacemaker traits. One piece of advice that our Enneagram book gives to Fours is to "channel your feelings into creative activities". Working full-time in a domestic violence shelter often leaves me carrying a weight of sorrow, frustration, anger, and regret at the end of the week - a lot of feelings that could use some creative channeling. This weekend, I decided to direct my creative energies to the kitchen, and baked a (hopefully delicious) apple pie with a homemade butter-free crust. I followed a recipe I found online, but left out the cranberries, added cinnamon to the filling, and substituted the juice and zest from an orange for that of a lemon to give some added sweetness.

Bon apetite!

Retreat to Go Forward

Our community just returned from our October Weekend Retreat, a chance for all of the JVC communities in the "southern" half of the East Coast to come together for a few days of prayer and relaxation. We joined the JV's from Raleigh, DC, Baltimore, Newark, and Camden at Our Lady of Mattaponi Retreat Center in Upper Marlboro, MD...otherwise known as the Dharma Initiative (Lost fans, see photo evidence below!)

Our Lady of Mattaponi...or is it?
The retreat was foused on community, with a splash of simple living thrown in. One of my favorite aspects of the retreat was the chance for the seven of us to talk as a community about how we're doing on the simple living aspect of JVC. We all agreed that while we'd like to challenge ourselves to be more conscious of how we use resources like water and electricity, as well as being more aware of where the food we buy comes from. Buying local and organic on a budget is a challenge in itself, but we're going to do our best.

We came back from retreat rested and refreshed, only to discover that our house had been pranked by the Camden community, who had apparently gained access to the house after we had left for the retreat center! Allow me to explain... There's a long-standing prank war between the Philadelphia and Camden JVC houses, which both of our communities have been more than willing to continue. Our Philly community struck first this year with the brilliantly orchestrated replacement of the Camden community's infamous "monkey painting" with a Twilight poster (in some people's opinions, an upgrade...decide for yourselves once you see the monkey painting below!) It was only a matter of time before the Camden JV's sought their revenge...which they did by stealing all of our house's most notable pieces of decor, such as Stephen the Social Justice Dragon, a blown-up version of the Declaration of Independence signed by FJV's, and the Philadelphia JVC quilt (pictures of these priceless items would be provided if it were not for Camden's thievery) - not to mention useful things like bulletin boards. Well played, Camden. Well played.

The Long View

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.

~Archbishop Oscar Romero

The Credo Project

Prayer for Generosity

Lord, teach me to be generous
Teach me to serve you as you deserve
To give and not to count the cost
To fight and not to heed the wounds
To toil and not to seek for rest
To labor and not to ask for reward
Save that of knowing that I am doing your will

~St. Igantius of Loyola