Episode #35: Overcoming Trauma #35 - Sunday Service Redux

Feb,14 2026

<-#34: Overcoming Trauma #34: Working for the weekend

We had a calm Saturday evening and actually watched some Netflix as a family, eating chips and popcorn.

For the record, I don't like eating chips when nude, as little pointy crumbs get all over your body, and since they are oily, they stick.

It was still a relaxing moment, and Sarah mentioned how she couldn't live without some level of television in her life.

In our bedroom, John expressed how happy he was to work with his hands and was impressed at Luis's speed and efficiency,

"It proves that he has experience", he said.

"So, will you work every weekend like that?" I ask, worried.

What worried me even more was the time it took him to answer.

"No. Martina is learning, and from their talk, I seem to understand that he wants her to be his assistant. He told me he was apprehensive about Martina not having a job and having nothing to do all day, and she is more and more convinced to just quit from the hospital"

"Oh"

"Yeah. He thinks that she isn't built to be idle. So if she helps him, it will give her something to do"

"And financially, they will be okay?"

"Well, the plan right now is to move his house to a point where he can work on it alone with her so they can start moving in really soon"

"But don't they have a cabin?"

"Yes, but they have too much stuff. I think his plan is to keep living in the cabin but move their furniture into the house, even if it's not complete enough"

"I see"

But then, he changes the subject.

"Will you go to the service tomorrow?"

"If Sarah wants to", I say.

"She does; she asked me if it worried me"

"Does it?"

"No. I read the book of Christopher. I can't say I love it all, but it's decent enough", he says.

"I know, right?"

"I am pretty certain he wasn't the only guy who came up with a philosophy like his. The difference is that two guys wrote about him, and by the biggest miracle, the second one married the daughter of the first one. Can you imagine if two different companies owned the rights? And then, the wife/daughter wrote stuff; her daughter did, her granddaughter did."

"Yeah. It's pretty wild", I admit.

"I don't know. I am not on the verge of stepping foot in that chapel, but let's say you wouldn't have to twist my arm as much"

"What if I became all submissive to you, like Kara is to her husband", I said, half laughing.

"Now, that would be a reason to ban you from going there. I love you. I don't want you to just do as I say. That's boring. How often do you have better ideas than I do? That membership thought? Brilliant. And doing a different narrator voice? It's like, a game changer for story time"

"I am getting a book to read to Sarah tomorrow"

"Nice", he said.

He wasn't too sore, and if he was, I didn't notice it from any other nights before bed.

I was still very nervous getting into church.

"Good seeing you back", says Pastor Luke at the entrance. This time, I walked in with Nadia and Martina, so I was less intimidated.

I also knew Kara and Kelly's parents, so I knew a few more people in the audience. And I knew Hanna and her family too.

I wasn't offered a reading, which suited me fine.

The main Christopher reading is 2 Christopher 6, which is about honesty versus truth, about being closer to oneself.

I liked it when I read it, but the sermon from Luke was, well, ordinary. People were touched, but I could feel he was preaching to the choir.

It was basically a sermon on how being a naturist is a truth that needs to be lived, not taught. That learning to do away with shame to avoid sin, is an action, not an idea or a learning.

I could feel the crowd drinking in his words, but I wasn't having it. I can see the difference between leading and preaching, and this was the latter.

We left, but I was left with a feeling of being left with my hunger. Luis had skipped the service to work with John, and when we all followed Martina, I was shocked to find that her future house now had walls!

We could get in because there was no door yet, but the center column, the restroom/bedroom wall, is up, and the ducts and preliminary wiring are done.

"Wait, none of this was in place this morning?", I said.

"It was, but on the ground. Now, it's mounted and fixed. The next step is the roof"

"But the floor is still rough"

"Well, it's not even the floor yet. We need to put the real floor on top of this foundation", says Luis.

"And I will help!" says Martina, excited.

I saw large, weird, triangular wooden pieces laid on the floor, and I presume that's what will hold the roof in place.

Nadia, sadly, had some emergency work to handle, and Patrick offered to help with the houses.

Cassie, Candace, and Sarah had plans and got permission to just go in the wood trails to spend some time.

I was worried; they are only eleven years old, but I soon learned why Kelly was fine with it.

"I know where they are going, to what we call the round table, and I am planning to have a walk on the trail so I can check on them, make sure they are safe, without being an overbearing parent"

Kyle and Jimmy had the pool in mind, so Victor became the babysitter, and I went with Kelly on the walk.

The walk was pleasant. Kelly was open about parts of her life, which made me a little shy, but I was honored to be trusted with it.

But as we walked, I realized something.

Nadia, Martina, and now Kelly have all told me private elements of their intimate lives. Things I could never discuss with anyone, possibly not even with John.

My first reaction was, why are naturists so open about their sexuality?

But the truth is, they are not. No sex talk occurred at all at any of the group happenings, be it around the campfire or for the barbecue.

My experience with office parties showed me otherwise.

So, naturists on those occasions didn't speak about sex at all, while I usually hear about it at other public events without kids. Good.

But in private? Three different naturist women I was starting to see as friends spoke to me of their sexual experiences or preferences.

That felt odd to me. And yet, I suspect that it's like that between any two women who are close friends. The problem is not that they are willing to talk about it; it's that I am not willing to do so, closing the door on those kinds of talks.

Against my own values, I decide to open a little. Barely, and oddly enough, I wasn't crucified or attacked. Instead, I got encouragement and empathy.

Is this how adult friendships work?

We spotted our daughters laughing. We heard them more than we saw them, but we did spot some skin color in between the leaves. Just enough to know they were there, and they were alone.

We kept going and arrived at a vegetable garden where Kara's twin teenagers were working.

"This is our garden. We try to increase its size every year, but it's a lot of work. Madeline and Patricia now put significant effort as part of their faith, but we all pitch in. "

I look, and it's huge.

"Wow, anything I can do?"

"There are always weeds to pull out. Want to do it a little with me? There is an outdoor showerhead to rinse off. It's relatively cold water, but when in the heat of the summer, it's very welcome"

I notice a pumpkin patch that isn't quite ready and has plenty of weeds.

Kelly and I began working on it, and I was quickly shown a compost heap for the pulled weeds.

There is also a garbage can next to it.

"For ragweed. We don't compost it. We try instead of eliminating it from the area. Then, we let them cook in the sun in dark garbage bags, and then, when fully dead, we compost them"

I laugh. "Can you really eliminate ragweed from an area?"

"Well, not fully, but it is going down. There are textiles doing their part in the area, and the city has less ragweed than it used to", she tells me.

"I think the weeds travel a lot over the wind"

"Yeah, about 300 to 400 miles. But just eliminating it in the near area helps a little with allergies. It's a little late now in the season; it was mainly earlier in the summer, but this used to be filled with ragweed when I was a child, and now it was less than a garbage bag full. Something is working"

"Interesting. That's almost environmental engineering", I say.

"Yeah. Olivia is this sweet grandma. She began when her kids had serious hay fever and now continues for her grandkids; she got a whole army of volunteers roped in. Even got a city ordinance passed to allow people with a permit to enter a yard to pull ragweed"

"Is she a naturist?" I ask.

"Nope, not at all. She does tolerate us. She sometimes comes to coordinate, but it's clear she hates us, but that if we don't eliminate our weed, she'll never clear the town"

"I don't think she ever will"

"No, but if every town had an Olivia, maybe we would"

"Perhaps we would"

Once the pumpkins were cleared, we went to pick a few strawberries and just ate them right on the spot.

"We do fully biological farming. The resort where Christopher was still has wheat, barley, and corn, and we are working on adding corn nearby, but it would need buying the farm next door"

"Is it for sale?"

"Yes, and Phil has an offer on it so that he gets the right of first refusal, but the farmer isn't quite ready yet to retire, so he is still asking a ton of money the resort doesn't have"

"Could we work on his fields in the nude if it got bought?"

"Not as is. We would need to put up a fence to block the view from the street. But perhaps some areas. After all, there isn't a fence between our site and his farm"

"For real?"

"Oh yeah. He comes over sometimes to trade corn for some vegetables and sometimes lends up his tractor to turn the soil in exchange for some labor help when he is harvesting. We have a good relationship with him"

"Even if he isn't a naturist?"

"Well, his daughter is one. I mean, she grew up next to us and sort of took to it. Moved to the big city, but for a while, they just let her come swim in our pool and enjoy our facilities for free. Even if his son tried it a little, he was less of a fan"

"But not him or his wife?"

"Oh, he is a widower. But now, he says he is perhaps a little too old-fashioned to try that"

I laugh. "Maybe we can offer him one of the new houses for his retirement"

Kelly laughed too. "Well, he plans to move in with his son and his grandkids in another state."

We eventually got back, but on the way back home, Kelly actually had us stop by the 3 girls still laughing and joking around on rocks laid in a circle, with a sort of flat one in the middle. I could see why they call this the round table.

The girls had put rocks on it and were doing some sort of marble-inspired game.

"I don't have the time, girls, but lunch should be soon", says Kelly.

"Yeah, I think we are getting hungry" says Sarah.

"Well, come and we'll try to fill your bellies", added Kelly.

"Can we just finish our game? We have like 2 minutes left; we'll be right behind you", says Candace.

"Sure", says Kelly, and we leave, with neither I nor Sarah saying anything more.

Lunch was just hotdogs, but we also sent some to the men and Martina, who were making quick progress on the roof.

Seriously, I wondered how they put it on top so fast. Now, they were putting the shingles on the roof, with all three men on top, and Maria operating a small excavator to put new shingle bundles on the roof. She was slow but deliberate.

All four workers worked up an appetite and decided to leave the construction zone to finish eating at Kelly's house.

By the time we got there, Jimmy, Kyle, and Victor were back and eating hotdogs at one of the picnic tables near Kelly's house with the three girls.

Nadia was nowhere to be found, and I even wondered if she stayed at the resort. We ended up leaving late in the afternoon, when the roof was finished, the front door was installed, and all that Luis had left to do on the basic frame was to put in the windows.

In the car, on the drive home, John explained that the reason it was so fast was the way Luis was able to perfectly organize everyone and how he made sure that the plans were followed to the letter.

Martina also picked up heavy machinery rather easily, and, well, that helped a lot.

"When your lead carpenter needs to switch between using the excavator and doing the work, everything is slow, but Martina seems to be a natural"

"For real?"

"Well, she did move away and practiced a lot with scraps, but still. "

Kyle wanted to tell us how much fun Victor was, how he made games where Jimmy and Kyle would team up against him, and that this was super fun.

Sarah was emotionally burned out. She did tell us that she felt like she was the adapter between the two girls. Calming one and stimulating the other, often alternating between the two.

I managed to prepare a good meal for supper, as I had chicken skewers bought ready-made from the grocery store, and I just put them in the air fryer while rice was cooking in our rice cooker and canned vegetables were heating in the microwave.

I laughed because no oven was used at all, so all of this could fit in the car.

Instead of watching television, we played a few board games. Mainly short ones: a game of Martian Dice, one of Ticket to Ride London, and two of Love Letter, which with 4 players isn't that fun. We finished with Qwirkle, a family favorite.

I think everyone was exhausted by the time we made it to bed.

Sarah from being the emotional connector, Kyle from the rougher way that Victor and Jimmy play, John from his construction work, and me. Well, I don't know why.

Emotional load? Work on the field? Carrying everyone? Is the inertia of my problems pulling me back? Am I emotionally taking on too much? I am wondering how I can help Olivia, how I can ease the purchase of the field, and the construction of a fence when none of that is any of my responsibilities.

But fortunately, John helps me change my line of thought and helps me find sleep.

<-#34: Overcoming Trauma #34: Working for the weekend