I'm Back!

I got back to my blessedly familiar bed this morning a little after 2:00 a.m. this morning (Sun, Feb 27). You can imagine what condition my brain is in, even after a three-hour nap.

I didn't get lost in Kansas City. Once I got the hotel, I never left. This was not entirely motivated by fear; it was primarily because the conference offered so many things I was excited by that I wanted do attend them all.

The schedule ran from Morning Prayer, at about 7 a.m., to Compline, at about 10:15 p.m. Between those services, every hour had some event. The organizers took it for granted that people wouldn't participate in every single hour. In my view, the experience was organized very much like a buffeteria, where one might sample this or that as whim and taste dictate.

Given my decision to keep moving practically from the time I arrived until early Saturday afternoon; given the excitement of new ideas and being with people who were equally excited by those new ideas; given the strange bed and the foreign ambience; I did not rest well.

I don't intend to be as obsessive in recording the events of this con fence as I was my time at Winfield last September. For one thing, I flat don't have the time. Right this minute, as you might suppose, I don't have the energy.

There are two bits of exciting news, only one of which I can talk about right now (the other news will need some more processing).

I be published in the near future. If I had to guess, maybe the next year or so.

Here's how it happened: one of the "Learning Opportunities" on the conference buffet was titled "Making Prayer Beads." Now, as I have mentioned, I have led (and am leading) a class at the Cathedral on the rosary which has included an opportunity to make one's own rosary. But, what with answering people's questions, I never had a chance to make one. I went to this session to make up that loss.

Each "Learning Opportunity" began with people introducing themselves and (sometimes) explaining why they were there. Naturally, I shared the above information. The instructor expressed interest, but (to honor the time) needed to move on.

I discovered beading requires patience and manual dexterity; skills in which I could stand some development.

So: the class had wrapped up, with only two or three of us struggling to finish our Anglican Rosary prior to going to the next event on the agenda. The instructor now asked me to talk more about what I was doing. I gave her what I call the "Reader's Digest" overview of the rosary's history, and how I am using it as a tool for people to share a bit of their faith journey.

Well, immediately, she was impressed by my fund of knowledge on the topic, and said she wished I had shared it during our session. Then she said: "I'm with Leader Resources. Would you be willing to record that lesson plan for one of our formation programs?"

I said yes, and she gave me her card.

I'll keep you posted. And stay tuned for the other bit of news; I promise it will be shared within the next week or so.

Until then: Samaste