Back from Camp -- WOW
Back last night from 7 days with 70 of my old- and new-best-friends. 'Camping' in a fine ante-bellum mansion in the wilds of West Virginia. Sharing a generous bedroom (with fireplace, with sunny alcove to the west, with claw-foot bathtub) with 4 others from my home region. Sharing fine cooking and an uproarious dining hall with a rockin' Facilitation Team and a nearly-clairvoyant Operations Team.
Got home happily in time for dinner, a bath, a first cut at the pile of snailmail and e-mail, a snuggle with my home-family, two-legged and four-legged alike.
Today it's unpacking and laundry, a deeper cut at the e-mail (do I really mean to answer the 277 messages that remain after deleting spam? Short answer: Nope. Good thing they're not all personal-requiring-action). Today it's appreciating the blessings of Lammas in my home congregation, even when I haven't been here to help with planning. Today it's looking out my window at the lush green of our summer woods.
Staying grounded, staying present, with lots of new personal work to integrate after an intense week at Camp, especially since I started Camp by driving 5 hours from one of the bigger Festivals.
Home to myriad bits of news from friends / family not at camp, some pretty sobering.
A childhood friend who now lives in the Southwest won't be coming through town in September -- she's fallen and broken a hip, at just 60. Yikes.
A local near-and-dear one has had surgery postponed twice now as various MDs sort through the anomalous lung xray and catscan. Hard to be on-again, off-again for what is now four or five weeks. Hard to go on and off blood-thinners to stay safe for surgery, if it ever happens, and also safe from stroke after a couple of mini-strokes several years back. Hard to know what, exactly, to do as doctors and insurers keep discussing. Yikes.
Camp story was pretty dense and deep -- How do we witness tragedy and stay sane? How do we do something to prevent tragedy? to avert disaster? or even to make someone's life more balanced? How can we rewrite our own stories? What really ARE "the" facts and which are 'just' our interpretation of the facts? What energy MUST we store in our bodies forever (is there really anything that must be held forever?) and which can we ultimately, fully release? How can we make those choices more fluidly, easily, grace-filled-ly?
Turned into a drummer this week, too -- woulda thought that'd take LOTS longer. But no -- like so many things, just Show up and Step up and Commit Yourself and the next thing you know, the universe has moved into alignment and Presto!
Not sure if this post is coherent or not ... but it's what's present now, and that's enough.
Love you all.
Got home happily in time for dinner, a bath, a first cut at the pile of snailmail and e-mail, a snuggle with my home-family, two-legged and four-legged alike.
Today it's unpacking and laundry, a deeper cut at the e-mail (do I really mean to answer the 277 messages that remain after deleting spam? Short answer: Nope. Good thing they're not all personal-requiring-action). Today it's appreciating the blessings of Lammas in my home congregation, even when I haven't been here to help with planning. Today it's looking out my window at the lush green of our summer woods.
Staying grounded, staying present, with lots of new personal work to integrate after an intense week at Camp, especially since I started Camp by driving 5 hours from one of the bigger Festivals.
Home to myriad bits of news from friends / family not at camp, some pretty sobering.
A childhood friend who now lives in the Southwest won't be coming through town in September -- she's fallen and broken a hip, at just 60. Yikes.
A local near-and-dear one has had surgery postponed twice now as various MDs sort through the anomalous lung xray and catscan. Hard to be on-again, off-again for what is now four or five weeks. Hard to go on and off blood-thinners to stay safe for surgery, if it ever happens, and also safe from stroke after a couple of mini-strokes several years back. Hard to know what, exactly, to do as doctors and insurers keep discussing. Yikes.
Camp story was pretty dense and deep -- How do we witness tragedy and stay sane? How do we do something to prevent tragedy? to avert disaster? or even to make someone's life more balanced? How can we rewrite our own stories? What really ARE "the" facts and which are 'just' our interpretation of the facts? What energy MUST we store in our bodies forever (is there really anything that must be held forever?) and which can we ultimately, fully release? How can we make those choices more fluidly, easily, grace-filled-ly?
Turned into a drummer this week, too -- woulda thought that'd take LOTS longer. But no -- like so many things, just Show up and Step up and Commit Yourself and the next thing you know, the universe has moved into alignment and Presto!
Not sure if this post is coherent or not ... but it's what's present now, and that's enough.
Love you all.