Doing What I Love

I slept fitfully last night.  I told a story at morning gathering today.  I wrote a story about my sister being arrested when she was nine months pregnant.  I loved the story I wrote but I get so anxious about whether I would forget important parts as I told it.  Each time I awoke I practiced it again.  

Today is forecast as the hottest, most humid day of the week.  It truly is miserable.  It is the kind of day that you take a morning shower and as soon as you walk outside you feel like you need to go right back and take another shower.  I arose early to shower before the Men Only time in the co-ed bathroom.  So I was dressed and ready long before breakfast.  I sat outside with a couple from Modesto as we sipped coffee and did our daily Wordle.  

I was teamed with Mike Stern for Morning Gathering.  Mike is a second cousin of mine.  I have never been paired with Mike before.  We worked well together.  He writes perfect songs to go with my story about my Vietnam War protesting sister.  Or may I should say that I wrote a good story to go along with his conscientious objector songs.  Either way, it went well.

As soon as Morning Gathering was over I came back to my air-conditioned cabin and began memorizing my story for campfire on Thursday night.  It is my longest story and the one that will take the most time to memorize.  

After lunch I joined an impromptu group, led by Jonathan, to take a closer look at the parable we title "The Unjust Judge and the Persistent Widow".  There are so few places in my life in which a group sits around and has an in depth discussion about biblical passages.  It is my bliss.

Every year at Fest there is one afternoon for a women's circle.  I always go.  We were asked to share (if we wanted to) about that for which we are yearning.  A circle like this allows us to move to a deeper depth with each other.  There will also be a circle for men and a circle for all genders.  

Campfire got moved indoors tonight because of the imminent threat of rain.  Moving campfire indoors causes something to be lost.  It begins with jokes and stories or songs from campers.  It went long and the musicians cut most of their songs and we went right into the storyteller's offering.  When we are outside people move around when they are antsy and when people whisper it isn't disturbing. 

The concert was Chris Good and Rhonda and Greg.  They are all includers and so they invited up many additional musicians to join them.  One of the things I love about Fest is the way that people get to be part of the scene.  Fest raises up musicians and storytellers and artists.  I feel so lucky to be here.

It was a glorious day of Wordle, storytelling, biblical exegesis, connecting with women and music!