it's been a year

One year ago today I wandered up Interstate 5 to spend the weekend at the groovy sisters’ spot on the lake for a vocation discernment retreat. It was my first exposure to the community. I was just going to check them out and because of that pesky call I kept getting from the big guy. I was not expecting to feel right at home or to find the community which might help to get the static off the line so that the pesky call actually made sense. Reading through my journal entry from that weekend though, that’s exactly what happened. I’ve really just been re-confirming and deepening that first impression in the year since.

Reflecting about that this morning made me realize I haven’t posted much about my discernment lately. Partly I think that’s because I’ve just been doing a lot of inner work which doesn’t make for a good blog post. Or even if it did, it’s not necessarily the stuff I want to broadcast to the blogosphere. But I do have some news to share if you‘re interested.

In June I started gathering materials for my application to become a candidate. That’s really the first step of the formation process where you start to get more integrated with the community but still have your own job and means of financial support. Well, I’m almost done. Just need my dental report (I see the dentist Wednesday) and one more reference letter. And my psychological evaluation. We’ve scheduled that, but it’s not until December! They have someone they like to do the evaluations, and he’s really busy this fall I guess. So, when they found out his first available appointment is in December they decided not to hold up the process for that. September 17 I’ll be meeting with the leadership team to discuss my application, my experience so far, and to discern if I should be accepted to candidacy. One thing I love about the groovy sisters is that they seem to make most (if not all) decisions through a process of mutual discernment. Very cool. Of course one of the leadership team members is a regular reader of this blog (hi you know who!), so I need to be careful what I say ;). Seriously though they are very cool (if not groovy) and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to having conversation about me moving on to this next step. Assuming the decision is to start candidacy, I guess if it turns out I’m crazy when they get the report from the psychologist in December, they’ll reevaluate that decision! I must say I am glad not to delay the conversation until then. That’s a long way away.

I’ll close this post and start the weekend with a prayer I found in my journal that I wrote that first weekend a year ago. It still works on this journey of continuous discernment ....

Loving God. I thank you for guiding me on this path, for helping me to find my way home. If this is that home, help me to recognize and embrace it. If not, help me to learn what I need to from these amazing women to continue on my journey with you. Give me the courage I need to be a risk taker. To live your love in my heart and in the world. Amen!