Tuesday started off in a down mood due to the unfortunate news of the loss of a dear family member by one of the families in our community, a day earlier. This morning I went to the store to get a condolences card for the family, and I stopped in at the drop-off point early to hand over the card to the other Facilitators so they could give the card to the family when they dropped off their Learner (whose sibling is in the remote cell with me). By the time I got back to Abrome I saw a text from the family that said that the Learner was going to take a day off to process the loss, so I told the other Facilitators to hold onto the card until the next day when the Learner came back.

At the morning meeting, the remote Learner who had lost a family member did not show. I told the remote cell the bad news, and then we talked about ways in which we can support people who are grieving. In particular we talked about the ring theory of support, where we provide comfort for those who are closest to a crisis, and we dump out to people who are further away from the crisis. We then reflected on someone that we missed. It was a somber morning meeting but it was a good conversation to have. We then shared our intentions for the day and adjourned the meeting.

The in-person cell was quite small on Tuesday. Not only was the aforementioned Learner out, but the Learner that he carpools with was not able to come as he had no other ride lined up. Further, a third, younger Learner was out that morning. The very small crew was not ideal, particularly since it was the last day of the five-day shadow for the prospective Learner who had been with the cell for the prior work. But it did promise to give a lot more one-on-one time with Facilitators.

Facilitators Ariel and Lauren both took time to chat with the shadower and to hear about his thoughts about the shadow. On the first day he shadowed, he told the Facilitators that he was a 0 out of 5 in terms of comfort with being outdoors. By the fifth day it was clear that he was having a blast outdoors. He told the Facilitators that he was a 3.5 out of 5 for comfort with being outdoors, and he added that he was a 3.5 out of 5 for comfort with being around the people of Abrome. That was a huge leap in the eyes of the Facilitators as he was extremely reserved and non-talkative a week ago. The Facilitators said they enjoyed seeing his personality come out over the five days. On this day he spent a lot of time with Facilitator Lauren and another adolescent Learner.

Facilitator Ariel, meanwhile, went with two younger Learners on a hike. While hiking the two Learners heard a peculiar noise, and they said it was most likely a bird. They then began to list off possible birds and talk about how well the absent younger Learner was at mimicking the birds.

The two young Learners continued on their journey, walking down a dried river bed, climbing over rocks, and eventually up a cliff to where they found some caves. It was a beautiful warm day which made the hike all the better.

Back at Abrome I had a good amount of time to be available for the Learners as all of my offerings that day went unattended. I originally had a bi-weekly meeting scheduled with the Learner who needed to take the day off to process emotions, but I was not surprised when she asked to postpone our meeting. We ended up going back and forth on Discord talking a bit about how she was feeling, but other than that I was by myself for much of the day.

At the end of the day for the roundup everyone except the Learner I was chatting with dropped in. We did a rose-bud-thorn reflection on the day. The saddest thorn was that one Learner has to give away two roosters who are picking on their hens. The most appropriate bud was that a Learner was breathing, and hopeful for many more breaths. And the most interesting rose was a Learner discovering that there are more types of penguins in New Zealand than in Antarctica. We adjourned the meeting and I checked in with the Facilitators from the in-person cell. They talked about what a great experience it was having the prospective Learner join us for the past week, and then we reviewed more ways in which we could support those who are grieving. It was a long day for everyone, and we all looked forward to finding new ways to connect and support each other, tomorrow.