“Friends Trump S*** In the End…”
Pardon my French. Although technically I guess that would be something like “Les amis jouent atout la merde dans la fin.” [That’s “Les amiss joint about la mere dams la fin.” on the other side of spell check…] Either way, I love that quote written by a friend a while back when life had looked better and it managed to stick with me. At dinner last night it kept running through my head-along with thoughts of what a great day it had been.
It started with a women’s retreat that I cringe even thinking about and if I can come clean I truly dreaded going to. I just don’t get that worked up about spending a day inside packed with a bunch of women, learning how to do flower arrangements and discovering my color palette. Plus, I’m shy. Which is why I hide behind a piano keyboard whenever I get the chance. But I signed up to go in an attempt to make this new faith community feel more like it belonged to me than it does.
I came close to bolting when they had us all stand and begin this yoga for Jesus segment. But the lights were low, the music was soothing and the assurance delivered through the quiet reading of various scriptures almost made me forget there were people in the booth behind me having a field day with this one. In the privacy of my own home it would have actually been quite nice…just not my thing in a room full of women.
The guest speaker was meant to be there. I’m going to be chewing on some stuff for a while. Let’s just say there were plenty of GodStops throughout the day.
The sessions were really good. Again more GodStops and a few recurring themes: forgiveness, anger, grace and miracles. Well, those were my themes, I’m sure the HS personalizes those a bit. One breakout session was led by the “blast from the past” lady I mentioned in an earlier post, and the second session was led by another unexpected blast from my past. I haven’t seen her in almost 10 years. She’s married now but it was a girl that Doreen Gross and I had studied with when I was learning to do Peace Treaties. I think she may have been my first one…but I do remember that our mothers were both fighting cancer at the time and I remember running into my living room one night telling mom, dad and Kevin to look at my knees…which were still wet from baptizing this girl in her bathtub. Very cool.
I was so proud of her during this session on journaling. I wish Doreen could have been there to hear of her journey and how recording it on paper was such an obvious passion. This was a GodStop for sure, but added to that is the fact that she is a really, really good friend of the girl who invited me to sing again, and has made this difficult transition a lot less scary. I can’t begin to tell you how much I think God is moving. I get pretty emotional thinking about it.
The last breakout session was led by a group of women, including a couple of my new friends and between the tender video segments and their beautiful pantomime sketches it was just all pretty lovely.
The day wrapped with a closing message from the main speaker and she managed to not only let us into her heart but to get way down deep into ours. That takes a real work of the Spirit for total strangers. I was glad to be part of this day.
I ended up missing out on the bridal shower of a precious friend and I hope to make it up to her in some way. It took longer to get through the lunch process than I thought it would and we weren’t able to get away. My prayers and best wishes were with her.
The rest of the evening was spent with some treasured time at a table surrounded by 13 of the dearest people in the world to me. One I hadn’t seen in far too long, and one I met for the first time. There were the expected belly laughs over the old and new, and sometimes inappropriate stories of times we had spent together and it was just really nice to be together again. We celebrated the academic achievement of someone we were all pretty proud of already, and we hopefully gained the acceptance of the one he wanted us to meet. I know seeing him happy again was more than worth the trip. [Both to Springfield and from where we’ve “been”.]
We always end up lingering a bit, not really wanting to say goodbye. It’s hard to walk away knowing it will be months until we’re together again and realizing when life takes hold of us, those increments of time may one day increase to where we may not see each other as often as we want. I would imagine we all play the mental game of “what if” & “I wish” and there are surges of emotions that overwhelm us as we drive our separate ways, but there was peace this time and an assurance that we’re all going to be okay. I’m keeping a corner of my heart reserved for the hope that God will one day bring us all back together for the living of this life and not just the retelling of the one that is behind us, but we’ll just have to see. Friends trump s*** in the end after all…tlgbybyaatway. Both of you...
It started with a women’s retreat that I cringe even thinking about and if I can come clean I truly dreaded going to. I just don’t get that worked up about spending a day inside packed with a bunch of women, learning how to do flower arrangements and discovering my color palette. Plus, I’m shy. Which is why I hide behind a piano keyboard whenever I get the chance. But I signed up to go in an attempt to make this new faith community feel more like it belonged to me than it does.
I came close to bolting when they had us all stand and begin this yoga for Jesus segment. But the lights were low, the music was soothing and the assurance delivered through the quiet reading of various scriptures almost made me forget there were people in the booth behind me having a field day with this one. In the privacy of my own home it would have actually been quite nice…just not my thing in a room full of women.
The guest speaker was meant to be there. I’m going to be chewing on some stuff for a while. Let’s just say there were plenty of GodStops throughout the day.
The sessions were really good. Again more GodStops and a few recurring themes: forgiveness, anger, grace and miracles. Well, those were my themes, I’m sure the HS personalizes those a bit. One breakout session was led by the “blast from the past” lady I mentioned in an earlier post, and the second session was led by another unexpected blast from my past. I haven’t seen her in almost 10 years. She’s married now but it was a girl that Doreen Gross and I had studied with when I was learning to do Peace Treaties. I think she may have been my first one…but I do remember that our mothers were both fighting cancer at the time and I remember running into my living room one night telling mom, dad and Kevin to look at my knees…which were still wet from baptizing this girl in her bathtub. Very cool.
I was so proud of her during this session on journaling. I wish Doreen could have been there to hear of her journey and how recording it on paper was such an obvious passion. This was a GodStop for sure, but added to that is the fact that she is a really, really good friend of the girl who invited me to sing again, and has made this difficult transition a lot less scary. I can’t begin to tell you how much I think God is moving. I get pretty emotional thinking about it.
The last breakout session was led by a group of women, including a couple of my new friends and between the tender video segments and their beautiful pantomime sketches it was just all pretty lovely.
The day wrapped with a closing message from the main speaker and she managed to not only let us into her heart but to get way down deep into ours. That takes a real work of the Spirit for total strangers. I was glad to be part of this day.
I ended up missing out on the bridal shower of a precious friend and I hope to make it up to her in some way. It took longer to get through the lunch process than I thought it would and we weren’t able to get away. My prayers and best wishes were with her.
The rest of the evening was spent with some treasured time at a table surrounded by 13 of the dearest people in the world to me. One I hadn’t seen in far too long, and one I met for the first time. There were the expected belly laughs over the old and new, and sometimes inappropriate stories of times we had spent together and it was just really nice to be together again. We celebrated the academic achievement of someone we were all pretty proud of already, and we hopefully gained the acceptance of the one he wanted us to meet. I know seeing him happy again was more than worth the trip. [Both to Springfield and from where we’ve “been”.]
We always end up lingering a bit, not really wanting to say goodbye. It’s hard to walk away knowing it will be months until we’re together again and realizing when life takes hold of us, those increments of time may one day increase to where we may not see each other as often as we want. I would imagine we all play the mental game of “what if” & “I wish” and there are surges of emotions that overwhelm us as we drive our separate ways, but there was peace this time and an assurance that we’re all going to be okay. I’m keeping a corner of my heart reserved for the hope that God will one day bring us all back together for the living of this life and not just the retelling of the one that is behind us, but we’ll just have to see. Friends trump s*** in the end after all…tlgbybyaatway. Both of you...
posted by ret at 9:01 AM
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