Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Places Where I've Lived: Robson Street 1

Moving day was relatively painless.  It was the third Saturday of October, 1985.  I was twenty-nine.  The weather was mild, partly sunny.  I did not like my new landlords.  They were well-off Hong Kong Chinese who didn't live in the building.  Which made it like an unsupervised playground.  Ouch.

The apartment was near Burrard Street on Robson in a refurbished old building upstairs from the stores and shops.  It was a long narrow one bedroom apartment and I suspect the apartments had once been offices.  I was not used to living downtown, with the noise, the activity and the occasional crime.  I opted to live there because of my ministry downtown.  I felt called to live, pray and intercede in the heart of the belly of the beast, as I tended to visualize the downtown core of my city.  I was dedicated and devoted to a life of prayer and intercession, of servanthood and of actively caring for others.  When I wasn't at work I was walking and praying in the neighbourhood, developing friendships with locals in the bars and often landing in very awkward situations.

I took prayer walks, often circumnavigating on foot Granville, Davie, Denman and Robson Streets, or walking on the beaches and seawall, or in the forest of Stanley Park where I constructed a series of stone cairns.  I frequently visited the cairns, to pray over them, restore the ones that had been destroyed and to pray for the wellbeing and healing of all who passed by them.

Meanwhile I prayed, I worked, I walked, I visited people.  Daily mass was still a reality.  Looking back at it all I marvel how I coped with the stress and danger I was often flirting with. in my paid employment of caregiving in the Downtown Eastside and ministry in the West End, and I also wonder why I didn't do anything to have what I could call a life.  But my life was so fully dedicated to living my faith I couldn't imagine having any other interest or activity.  Apart from reading.  I read voraciously.  And kept a journal.

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