some weeks take me longer to process than others. people who know me, know that i tend to "shut down" a little bit from time to time. before i'm able to talk about things, i need a bit of time to figure it all out in my head. i don't like to communicate things in the wrong way. i heard bob goff speak once and he talked about these moments he calls "WHHHAAAATTTT?" moments. i had one this week. a couple weeks ago, i went to the library to watch a preview of a four part documentary called "a path appears". while there, i meant a woman who's son was a musician, but worked a lot in social justice issues. there was a project she talked about and wanted an art therapist to join in, and i offered. on friday, we met up at thistle farms cafe to chat. i expected the meeting to only take a couple hours, it took five. and i'm totally okay with it. even though i had to take a day off work. and i missed a meeting.
we talked about how we got into our careers, our experience with trafficking, that kind of deal. we talked about the project she wanted an art therapist for, which sounds pretty fun. it's a poster contest for the question "what does safe look like?". which i'm all about, but that's not what i'm really here to discuss.
part way through the conversation, she asked what my vision was. i said that i wanted a place for women and their children to come to learn, create, explore, and feel safe. she then threw the bomb. she talked about meeting an owner of a public housing complex in madison that is offering a space to run a community center in the complex. this complex is known for housing a lot of prostitutes and women coming out of that life. we, briefly, brainstormed what that could look like. she then said she would just let me take over that. i felt my heart hit my feet. she's scheduling a meeting to tour the space, so that we know what i'm working with and for me to meet the owner.
i have a lot of work to do. and it's crazy that this is happening now. i don't know whether or not to be excited or what. nothing is etched in stone yet and this could all fall through. i'm excited about the possibility to have a space, like where i was in india.
i'm still trying to process it all. i almost don't believe it happened.