'The Frosty Frolic Ball'

'It's Winter Carnival week here. "Frosty Frolic," we're calling it this year. We're just halfway through, but I can say in all honesty that wearing my pajamas to work, dressing up in a Newfoundland flag, and dancing to "Sudbury Saturday Night" in my oversize gold shirt and purple dollar store wig has been just what the doctor ordered. I can feel the good vibes seeping through my thick skin of impatience and discouragement and giving me a little spark of the all-too-elusive hope. Thank God for that.

There have been lots of little moments that have contributed to this mini-transformation. But the moment that moved me most was simple.If you weren't paying attention you could miss it. It was on the dance floor at the Frosty Frolic Ball. Coralee was out on the dance floor, wheelchair left in the dust, boogie-ing down holding the hands of a young German assistant for support. She looked young and hip--which she is--and happy. Julian, a handsome young assistant in his second year with us at L'Arche, had approached her with a smile. Any girl would be thrilled to have this guy seek them out on the dance floor. Julian, towering over Coralee, reached out his hand and asked her to dance. She turned her head up to say yes, and there was just this little moment that passed between them. It was as simple as a smile, but it was a smile that didn't come from the mouth, or even from the heart. It came from some other mysterious place where two people who shouldn't have even met manage to cross paths and share a life and find in the other something neither of them knew they needed. I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by how lucky each of them were, and how lucky I was to be a witness to their relationship.

Sometimes I take this life for granted. But sometimes something happens that reminds me of the gift of L'Arche. Julian and Coralee reminded me of that last night. Thanks.'

Jenn Power, Community Leader, L'Arche Cape Breton