(Left to Right) Emma Kloes, Jacob Lawrence, Amy Alstad and Cortez Mitchell
This week, we say goodbye to Jacob Lawrence, who spent the past 10 weeks at Holy Wisdom as the summer prairie intern. He was a fantastic addition to the coworker community in general, and the land management team in particular.
Next week, he returns to Yale Divinity School to finish the final year of his Master of Arts in Religion with a concentration in Religion and Ecology. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors, and can’t wait to see where his curious and compassionate spirit leads him next.
Read his reflection here:
What surprised you most about your time here?
Before starting here, one thing I was a little nervous about was my 50 minute drive getting long by the end of the summer. Now that I’m done with the internship, something that has surprised me is how that drive never got difficult. It never got difficult because I was always excited to see and work alongside my coworkers while we engaged in activities that made a difference. I’m surprised about how perfectly this internship has fit me. I genuinely don’t think I could’ve imagined a better scenario. The thing I was perhaps most surprised by was how quickly I was welcomed into the community, not only by the land management team that I worked primarily with, but the volunteers and the entire staff too.
What will you take with you from your summer at Holy Wisdom?
Working primarily outside has helped me better understand what a relationship with nature looks like. For me, that has taken the shape of learning to trust my intuition more when feeling a sense of spiritual connection with nature. It always felt like the contemplative nature of the monastery offered a gentle reminder to tap into that connection with the surrounding environment. I hope to take these gentle reminders with me as I begin school again. And of course, I will be excited to show off my new ability to identify various species of plant life when I go hiking with friends and family.