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taking you with me

it feels a bit strange to write this morning, because i don't often go this long without posting more, but i was at annual conference without a satisfactory connection to the interwebs, and then when i got home i was preparing for the acoustic orange show and then spent all day yesterday recovering from it.  but here i am: alive and well.

it's been a very rich weekend, as this whole season of my life has been.  thursday was the yankee game, and it was an absolutely gorgeous day just to be sitting in yankee stadium, enjoying a baseball game in the gorgeous june sunshine, among the faithful, sharing in the occasional high five. 

from there i drove south to valley forge, pa, for the annual conference of the greater new jersey annual conference of the united methodist church.  normally this is a weekend of business and presentations, votes and worship, and reconnecting with old friends.  and while it was still those things, it was mostly just alot of goodbyes.  i have so many colleagues who are friends, who have journeyed with me in so many different ways through the 12 years i've been in new jersey.  in so many ways, this is my community.  and so there was a great deal of sadness and tears for me.  (imagine that boyz-II-men's "it's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday" has begun playing here and will serve as the soundtrack to the rest of this paragraph)  i've never been hugged so much in my life.  everyone, of course, wishes me well in this new chapter of life, and i return the sentiment, but it doesn't remove the sense of loss i feel about the fact that i will soon be doing ministry in a conference where i will know almost no one. 

i got home from annual conference on saturday and starting preparing for my concert (as one half of "acoustic orange") that night.  justin and i got to the coffeehouse and got all set up and tons of our friends came and we had a great show, just having a good time playing and singing music that we love.  it was a blast.  i also brought a bunch of collages and i think i sold about 25 of them when all was said and done!  amazing.  another incredibly rich night of friends and companions, all in the context of parting ways, knowing that we will all carry a piece of one another with us wherever we go.  its part of being human and sharing air and shedding this skin in tiny little microscopic pieces all over everything we do.  we rub off on each other, whether it be a high five at a ball game, or an embrace from an old friend: we are part of each other.  we are never really independent, and we never really leave each other. 

i slept the day away yesterday, after church, and now i'm here at the mechanic getting new brake pads and rotors. 

so there you have it.  sorry if you've been checking in to find me absent.  i promise to be around more this week, as we continue to pack and prepare for moving day.  thanks to all of you who have been surrounding us with love and care through this process.  you're the best!  i will take you with me!

Comments

Unknown said…
Saturday was awesome, and left me feeling trapped between having more blessings than I had thought I could have, but a thought of the tomorrow that wont happen. I guess that middle ground is where growth and learning happen. In the constant re-discovery that God's plans are better than our own.
Crafty P said…
sounds so full of life and awe and blessings. So excited for you as you enter this new chapter!

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