Freewrite Fifteen - Reorienting to Life Back Home

I was supposed to pray with Mindy this morning at 8:30am, but I had told her last week that we will see because I will have driven back 8 hours from Boise on Sunday. As suspected, I am wiped out. It was a ton of people contact, first arriving in Eagle, ID to be with Debbie (best friend from college - met each other in the fall of 1979 - must make a note to celebrate our 40 years of friendship when I go and see her again in September). We go DEEP SIX in about SIX SECONDS - Seriously! I think this Spiritual Direction Cohort in Boise is that much sweeter because I get to stay with Debbie for three nights every two months! It is so helpful to brief/debrief with her every day I am there. 

SO, that was first, then I get up, and she has to leave for work at 6:50 in the morning (and that is 5:50 my time after driving all day the day before for 8+ hours - but OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DRIVE - even though this time meant going over the Blues Mountains in pouring down rain on the way over). I took a walk for a half hour because she has to drop me off at 7:30 am, but isn't it cool that she works only 10 minutes away from where my cohort meets? The walk was in the pouring down rain, but it was good for my injured psoas muscle to get some exercise. 

Then we eat as a cohort at 8 -9am and start with a devotional at 9. I love these people, and two people dropped out and two could not come so it was only six trainees and the two trainers, confirming that less is more for me. I love the two no longer there and two that couldn't make it, but the conversation is so much more intimate with eight people. We had a meditation on Ps 139 which is what I was going to meditate on that morning, but I felt God say, "Skip it today because you have your meditation in community today." AND IT WAS ON Psalm 139. 

Then we had a long discussion on The Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith. We were given a stage to role play and have people guess what we were role playing, and I got THE WALL so role played what actually happened to me when I hit THE WALL in real life! It reminded me a lot of The Making of a Leader by Clinton, and it turns out that one of the previous cohort people knows the author of that book and also made the same comparison. 

I discovered from our leader that we were having dinner with the previous year's Boise Cohort after all day with our Year One Cohort. It was nice, but lots of talk about Boise, and "one of these is not like the others" caused me to feel a little bit "out of the circle" as they talked about the future for the Boise Spiritual Directors, but I think I was OK as I "caught myself in the middle of the act" of those feelings and did a little prayer. I also sense walls. I can usually sense walls. I was OK then. Then, I went home and shared my perspective of the dynamics (mostly the walls), and my best friend was so glad because she has encountered similar walls and thought she was crazy. So, we stayed up and talked through but got to bed by 9pm. 


I had a rather intense talk with one of my cohort members on the way back from the dinner the night before, and she picked me up the next morning for our second day of training. I had a good time with God and felt I needed to share something. It was so well received. I didn't give advice, but I did use an analogy from 30 plus years ago that popped into my head. I think as a Type Two I always need to be aware that I "absorb other people's stress and difficulties." So sharing what I did helped me to let it go and be the friend who just stands by. 


Anywho, our devotional the next day was on TREE analogies and where we were in the TREE (from different Scriptures). Again, one of the verses was so related to my WALL experience that it made me laugh to share the story of having a nervous breakdown at 23 years old because God is so good to let me get through the WALL experience. (I know it is not funny to have a breakdown, but I can smile now about it and that verse on the TREE was my verse during that time.)  The rest of the day we did a supervision of one of the trainees and gathered the graces of things we learned during this first year. The prays at the end of our time were so sweet. I have found my people. 


The whole day was great. I really love this cohort and so glad I made the change from the Seattle Renovare Cohort to this one. That one just was not a good fit and too big and more academic. This one is more intimate and practical, giving us much "soul time"!

Oh, just one last thing even though the timer is going. I loved my drive home. I used cruise control to keep me from accidentally speeding, and the COLUMBIA GORGE WAS GORGEOUS. Then I came back to GORGEOUS GEORGE at home and went out to lunch and debriefed the whole weekend.  (Oh also listened to Tuck Everlasting and Pride and Prejudice while driving. PERFECT!) 

BYE!