I know, I know, it’s been quite a while since we’ve posted on here, my apologies. The last month at Koinonia was insanely busy. We shipped over 1,000 orders our last week there are over 2,000 in November and December (which is super exciting and awesome!) Here is a picture of a sea dragon made of out boxes in the shipping room that our lovely shipping team assembled (they may have been slightly delirious):
So when I wasn’t working I was trying to find some down time and spending precious time with friends. I worked in the bakery a lot, which I really came to love! I learned how to make pecan pies and pecan brittle, unfortunately the last batch of pecan brittle that Lauren and I made we burned pretty terribly so we couldn’t sell it. But it all feels like a whirlwind and now I find myself back in Raleigh and preparing for the next leg of our adventure.
My last week-and-a-half at Koinonia I had the song Auld Lang Syne in my head almost every day. I had never really thought much about this song before, I didn’t even really know what it was about, but I found myself strangely addicted to it. Here are some of the lyrics:
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
The phrase ‘auld lang syne’ essentially means old times or long, long ago. I brought this up at our final intern breakfast and speculated on the fact that it had been stuck in my head for so long (side note: I don’t believe in coincidences, so I tend to speculate about a lot of things) and my friend Hannah said that she knew why it was in my head: “It’s because we all feel like old friends.” And I think she was right. This pretty much sums up my experience at Koinonia in a short phrase. New friends quickly became old friends that I will cherish and love for the rest of my life, I’m sure. We lived so intentionally and were together so much that we grew into each other, we opened up to each other much more quickly than we would have in different circumstances, we were able to search for ourselves with the support of those around us.
Being back in Raleigh, the first thing people ask me about is how my experience was at Koinonia. I still haven’t been able to put it into words–that’s why it’s taken me so long to even begin to write this post–but my first response is always to talk about the people I met. I have never met a group of people who were more genuine, caring, passionate, and engaged, and it changed me. For the first time I saw people living out their beliefs wholly and honestly, and being comfortable in their searching, and it swept me in and allowed me to begin to do the same. I felt more at peace there than I had in a long time, I felt more open than I had in a long time, I felt more myself than I had in a long time, and I can attribute that to the people and the atmosphere they provide. I was truly heartbroken to leave. BUT I am so thankful that this was our first stop, it set a precedent of mindfulness, contemplation, and compassion that I hope to carry on throughout our whole trip. We worked hard, but the focus was on our spiritual and emotional journey and we learned to use work as well as conversation in that pursuit. I can imagine that beginning our journey with this mindset will be invaluable for the rest of our trip. So, here are some pictures of the family I found at Koinonia:
So, our next stop is Green Hill Farm in Kentucky beginning January 19! Stay tuned for more adventures and thoughts to come.
–Lindsay
The Grand Farmventure 