Wayne

Wayne is on work-release from a prison near Raleigh, working in a kitchen for a prominent, apparently picky, government official in Raleigh. This is an excerpt of one of his letters to his pen pal.

You know, even as I reread your last letter now, it is amazing the insight that you gave into my situation.

The past two months have been even more short-handed, just myself and one new guy in the kitchen. So far this time period I've been carrying the whole load, or most of it. Chef has helped out as much as he can, but when you go from four cooks, to one and a new guy, well you know what it's like! Pure work, non-stop, 7 days a week, 12-16 hours daily. Mostly 16 hours a day.

I have pushed myself plain out, past my limits at times. But through all of this I've been able to learn at an accellerated pace. I've learned what my limits really are, and how to hold at that level for periods of time, by meditating in the work.

You said the you don't believe in cookie cutter situations, to go to the beauty and positive things in dark situations or times and let that be the meditation. 10 minutes of cushion time here and there were not working well, but that really did help. I learned to focus on the single task at hand and how it was helping me long-term in life. How people were counting on me, because I could be counted on. And how much better this is compared to where I was one year ago at Nash!