Update, of sorts

Just back from Reading Week. I went to the Apostle in Exile’s house from one Friday to the next, ostensibly to study. I got some work done, but didn’t catch up as much as I’d wanted to. She works during the day, so that was my reading time. We also took her 2½-year-old goddaughter to the pumpkin patch, went to a concert at her church, did projects and hung out at home. It was a good, and restful, week.

I came back to Berkeley for three hours last Friday, and then went off to my parish retreat. We went to the Bishop’s Ranch in Healdsburg. It’s really beautiful there. The theme of the weekend incorporated Scripture, prayer, and “surrounding ourselves with spiritual friends.” I had such a great time. I loved being able to have longer conversations than we can over a Sunday morning coffee hour. We got to sing a lot. The story circle was deeply powerful. And we built our Sunday Eucharist together, in small groups. It came together in a joyful celebration.

My poor blog. I feel like I owe everybody an update; I just haven’t known how to give it. My friend Molly introduced her story last Saturday night by explaining that she’s living in a story she doesn’t know how to tell yet. That’s where I've been, also.

I’ve started updates several times, and didn’t finish them because I couldn’t string the sentences together to say what’s really happening. Since last summer, I’ve been finding pieces of me that I hadn’t known existed. I’m having huge experiences, mostly internal. I want to share them, but I really just need to let myself integrate them first. I also don’t know how to do something so personal, publicly.

For right now, I’m not sure how to use this space. I like the idea of telling stories to illustrate the literal truth; maybe I’ll experiment with that. God knows I don’t really have the time, anyway, even though I want to keep writing. Please bear with me while I figure this out.