Visit to Mary House

I've been in Austin over a week and had hardley noticed that I have eaten every meal alone, until I was around a the dinner table at Mary House. Mary House is the Catholic Worker House in South Austin that offers a home, and place to die for those who have nowhere else to go at the end of their lives. It sounds morbid, but the house is full of life. The walls are brightly painted (thanks to a guest named Jesus who was an undocumented immigrant from Mexico) two dogs and too many cats to count were running around the living and dining room, an african parrot threw words in both english and spanish into the conversations, and the guests were coming and going. Shared food tastes better, but the food didn't need much help; Lynn, the worker at Mary House, serves fresh organic foods to her guests. I fell off the vegetarian wagon tonight and must once again consider myself a freegan more than vegetarian. They served organic free range buffalo. It was wonderful along with the cucumber salad, fresh stir fry and rice. It was a beautiful evening and I very much appreciate the welcome I recieved from Lynn and the guests. I wish I had snapped a picture on the way out of a small sign that hung beside the door under a picture of Christ in the Garden of Gesthsemane that read something like "Christ waiting for government assistance". It feels like coming home to visit another catholic worker.