Another Anniversary

One year ago, I was at a weekend discernment and wrote this in my private journal:

But this weekend I've also been spending doing a discernment weekend for Young Adult Service Corps. And I'm so glad I've been here, because it has been the most sane-making and rewarding thing that I have done for months.

One of the other members of my small group called it finding our tribe, and there's definitely an aspect of that present here. These are very much my people: the young adults, mostly well-versed in religion (there's one exception and she is awesome and I want to live in her brain because it is a thing of beauty), all really eager to serve and help others, and discussing things we never get to talk about in our daily lives.

And I've gotten to spend time doing things like walking along a lake or lying in a field starwatching and talking about everything under the sun with the girl whose brain is fantastic. Or getting told by someone that I looked like I was part of a painting when I had been walking alone, with the last vestiges of the sunset on the water, and the trees full of Spanish moss, and my hair and skirt billowing in the breeze. Or starwatching again with the girl from before and a guy from our group, and not even needing to talk because everything we felt was understood.

I want to move forward with this mission, this work. But even if I don't get to continue, it was worth it just for this experience, these people.

The next day, on further reflection, I added this:

This weekend was absolutely incredible. You know how you get those perfect moments, the perfect conversations and silences together? The ones that come once in a blue moon if you're lucky, but can change you forever? In some ways it felt like this weekend was almost entirely comprised of those moments.

So thank you to H, for our conversations at the lake, cooing over lizards together, and starwatching. Thank you to P, for your beautiful lecto divino, chanting, and your wisdom and humor. You struck me as having that combination of thoughtfulness, insight, and gentle humor that I associate with the truly holy. Thank you M for your willingness to join in with humor, to break into song and dance, and for the way that you encouraged and supported everyone else when they would have been too scared to speak up on their own. Thank you to C, for airport conversations and joy. Thank you to Am, As, S, and R for making small group so safe, so fun, and so supportive. Thank you to J for your incredibly infectious giggles, and MD for playfulness. Thank you to Z for making me feel beautiful out of nowhere, and for stopping to notice the sky with me. Thank you Je for sharing cat stories our first night. Thank you to Ra for making me giving backrubs to everyone fun and accepted.

Thank you to Jason and Glenda for making the interview session non-scary. Thank you Chris, Elizabeth, and Robin for telling your stories. Thank you Camp Weed for incredible food and your beautiful chapel.

That weekend was the start of everything I am doing now.  Thank you again, for an incredible new year of my life.