Where have you been friend?

Several people have been giving me a hard time about the length of time since my last blog.  I am not sure why I haven’t written lately, i have done plenty of thinking.  Here a few of the things that have been on my mind lately, a bit of a scatter shoot if you will.

Experiencers:

A few months ago I had drinks with the ex of one of my closest guy friends.  At the time the break up was very new and both parties were just trying to figure out what had happened, why, and what they wanted to happen in the future.  In chatting with this friend she brought up to me the concept of “experiencers”.   I was a little confused having never heard this term before, but she went on to explain that in her life there were many people who had come through, made an impression, and then were gone.   While this seems like an obvious and almost “duh” like statement I had never given any thought to it.  When I look closely at my life I see 3 huge “experiencer” friends.   My relationship with these people ended in three different ways, abruptly, slowly with the cold shoulder ignore, and VERY slowly with a slow but steady drift over the last 4 years.  All of these were people that have helped make me the person I am today, I could not have gotten through many issues without these three people (independently, and even sometimes as a team) but when i think about the end times with them I am usually deeply saddened, and at times even angered.   Instead of thinking of them as “experiencers” I have been thinking of them as “users”, people who used me up and then got rid of me when they were done.  By thinking of them as “experiencers” I am accepting that we both gave and gained in our relationship and then it ended because our lives changed and we moved on.  It has been 4 years since these were my go to people, and I have made many new friends, gotten married, and even carried on friendships with people who were there before them.  My life is good, and so is theirs. 

So to all my great “experiencers”, those i have known and lost, and those that are yet to come, Thank you!

Mission Trip

I always struggle with trying to sort out my feelings post CTCYM.  My experience (as a leadership team member) is always different than that of a participant.  I want to come back with a new group of friends, a renewed vigor for the amazing race, a sunburn, and an awesome story to tell.   Very rarely do I achieve any of these goals.  It’s tough but the thing that I have to remember is that as a leadership team person, in this case Co-Program with Patrick, my job is to facilitate those experiences for everyone else on the trip.   As Co-Program, Patrick and I are in charge of the fun and spiritual side of things.  We executed our jobs well this week, Lunch Devo’s were actually used, our evening activities were fun and focused on team building, and worship was incredible.  So why do I have this pit in my stomach? 

Blackberry Blunders and Bug Bites

So in the last three days I have doubled the amount of swim time that I had all of last summer!  While this awesome it is apparent that it has been so long since I have done this that I have been making a few rookie mistakes. 

Rookie Mistake #1:  On Sunday at my youth pool party I was wearing swim trunks with my tankini top (i feel like i can be more active this way).  As I come out of the bathroom all of the students are already in the pool, so I drop my towel and keys and walk into the shallow end to join the fun.  I take my time to enter slowly to adjust to the water temp and continue my conversation with those outside the pool.  After 5 minutes of wade time I feel something bumping my leg, at this point I reach into my pocket and pull out……. my BLACKBERRY!  Needless to say my phone did not endure the royal drowning I gave it, so its back to my old phone until i can get a new one.  Hmph!  

Rookie Mistake # 2 (this one might not be all swim related, just outside)

Tuesday evening I am at 2026 taking a dip in the pool, and i got out of the pool to go inside to use the restroom.  As I am drying off and looking to head into the house I step through the grass and then stop because I am trying to continue a conversation with the people in the pool, and after a few moments my feet begin to feel like they are on fire!  Well they were…. kinda, they were covered in Fire Ants! 

So now I have no cool phone and my feet and legs are covered with ant bites!  But alas I still love me summer time!

Be safe and if you are still reading thanks for sticking around for the scatter shoot.

 

Pyaar and Agape!

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