Freewrite Sixteen on a Saturday

I have not been doing Freewrites here. As I said in the previous post on July ? that I was writing on Penzu. I have loved it. I write 1000 words a day which is about what it is to do the "Three Pages" that Julia Cameron recommends in her book. I have been ultra-transparent in these writings. 

As a Type Two on the Enneagram, I tend to "edit" my emotions to the positive side without fully dealing with what I am feeling. That is part of my maturing as a person, to not edit but be honest with myself about things. 

So, I had a situation last week that I journaled about, and it was so helpful. It goes back to college days. I could never put my finger on why I reacted to things, but I had a situation where I was able to put my finger right on it, and it was so great to work through that. 

As a side note, I would not have been able to do that writing out my feelings here. So, it is good that I am doing this privately. 

I already wrote my 1000 words at Penzu this morning, but I felt like writing more here, just to touch base. 

So, there are so many things going on that my head is spinning. I have to say that this promise I got in March of 2023 is coming to fruition:

I love how it is worded in The Message version:

"Yes indeed, it won't be long now," God's Decree.

"Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won't be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once--and everywhere you look, blessings! Blessings like wine pouring off the mountains and hills."  Amos 9:13

I had the vision of a "wine waterfall" 7-10 days (my journal says two different things) before this verse came. I feel so blessed.

I had hoped to start the Body and Soul Companion School of Spiritual Direction in the fall. I finished my "shadowing" of my wonderful trainers, Marty and Sandy, on May 13th. I also had hoped to start another 19th Annotation group of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius. Within two weeks of putting both out there at the end of June, I was inundated with 18 people wanting to do the Exercises!

I had already been praying about this, and I had to tell God that I was more passionate about facilitating people through the Exercises, and there you go! It happened. 

So, I postponed the dream of training spiritual directors through Body and Soul Companion, (the vision is still for the appointed time - just not this year), and I pivoted toward training directors with Deepen Sent-Well (five of the people doing the Exercises are a direct result of me supervising Deepen spiritual directors). I had already said, "No," to them, but I felt a freedom to say, "Yes," when I was approached a second time to reconsider. I think the connections and relationships I have formed there will be so great. I read through all the bios of the people applying to be in their school, and I got very excited. 

So, back to the Exercises, I had a flurry of activity from July 8-August 1 as I suggested to some to wait a year and to others that I would have to limit the number of people, and two dropped out. 

(Sixteen - but I am going on a second Sixteen because it is Saturday, and I have nothing on my calendar.)

Well, now I have just three groups - Two with four people, and one with three people. The one with three people has the person who gathered a lot of people going on to lead a second group of two people. 

Today, I will send them my manual and links to get them prepping for the Exercises. :)

I am thankful that God gave me clarity on the Exercises and BOOM, there was a big response. 

What is so weird is that I thought for sure that one of the groups would be people from the 2nd Half Collaborative, and NO ONE bit. I thought that was so interesting. 

So, thirteen people will take the Exercises from three different groups. I made logos for each group, and that was very fun to do. 

That will be my main emphasis next year. Dropping the 2nd Half Collaborative and the Renovare Book Club (not dropping that entirely - I would love to participate, but I won't be able to lead it anymore. I figured I put so many hours into reading the books and preparing the questions and then leading the group that I want to pass that on to someone else. I am certainly willing to lead ONE of the books, but I cannot host and coordinate it anymore. Ten years is a good amount of time - No one has said they will take it over though. So, it may die. :()

I am also not "shadowing" Marty and Sandy - something that was a tremendous amount of time from September 2023-May 2025, but it was SO worth it! I made so many great relationships out of that time and five (maybe four) of the people continue to be one-on-one directees today. 

So, today, I hope to walk and pray. Then listen to my book about Caitlyn Clark. Then, I need to read The Tartar Steppe, QED, and Dearest Friend, then I will be done with the 1000 Books to Read. My goal was to make it to 500 by the end of the year, and I have exceeded 500, but I had some books on hold that finally came in. So, it will be more like 510 by the end of the year, but I want to read pleasure and edifying books from now on. Some of the books on this list are not very edifying, and I was tired for that. The ones I have left are innocuous regarding edification. 

Some of them are hard to get through! 

SO, I have five more minutes from this second round of 16. I fell yesterday. Sun in my eyes, and I missed the curb. I was walking fast trying to get back in time to meet with C about her interest in doing Spiritual Direction with children while she is doing her training with Sustainable Faith Europe. She would be great. I didn't know she was trained as a teacher and has had counseling classes in play therapy. She would be so great with kids! So, you go girl.

I think I broke a rib or two and scrapped up my knees and palms. I am still going to try to walk this morning. Maybe not as long. I hope I am healed by the time I go river rafting. 

Now, I am off to meditate in Scripture. I am on "The Word-Centered Life" in The Reservoir devotional. I decided to do it all on my computer instead of journaling on my Scribe because my notes on the Scribe do not transfer over to the Kindle in other versions (web, Fire, IOS)! I don't know why that is so, but I didn't discover that until I was about 68% of the way through the book! I am bummed about that. 

I have 30 seconds. Ta Ta for Now. Thank God for this new day. Sabbath begins. YAY!