It's about time...

I have just realized how terribly LONG it has been since I posted, so I thought I would sit down and get after it to bring you all (and myself, to be real) up to speed with what it going on. And pardon the title of this post. I know that John Denver has a song with this same title, and that song is awesome. I want to go on record there. Anyway, I am currently sitting in my house in Olympia trying to figure out what has happened these past few months and years. The short version is that a couple years ago I quit my band and my job and decided to complete the Master of Divinity degree that I had been working on part-time since 2009. I became a full-time grad student and got a job doing interfaith dialogue work in Seattle University. It was happening! Loved the community of being a full-time student, the immersion experience of living in the vernacular of the university, being exposed to rabid minds, ideas, and options. It was a good move to go full time! Yes, there were all kinds of sacrifices (financial, artistic, other) but you're not reading to hear about those! And really, I don't linger on them...so there. Suddenly it was June 12th, 2016. I am at Key Arena, standing at the podium before thousands of family members, graduate students, and faculty, staring down at the benediction speech that I had been asked by Seattle University to present. I felt disembodied. I heard my words...they were mostly of gratitude and hope. As I listened I realized a deep, burning joy in my heart to say out loud what I love and vision for the world. There were hugs in the hallways as we bumbled around, caught between looking for our families and saying good-bye to each other. Good-bye? Really?! Until when? Where are you going? Thank you. Your amazing. Keep in touch. Yes, good-byes. Perhaps all and none of this was said, but felt. It happened fast. And so I am here in Olympia. Bethanie and I now live in a house we bought here in the winter of 2015, before we ever officially planned on moving. It was a thing where we saw a house that needed a remodel and was cheap. I didn't have a job that coming summer and could live there and remodel it. What could go wrong? Well, actually, not much went wrong and we ended up each putting in a bunch of work and creating a really cute house in which I now sit and type. Weird, huh? Really, though, Olympia is great. Small, kind, a LOT closer to the ocean (more on that later), and the location of my new job as an interfaith minister. Yeah, that last detail is not one I saw coming even a couple years ago. But something started to happen to me in my final years at Seattle University's School of Theology and Ministry. I started to realize that many of the pursuits in life that bring me joy, passion, and energy (connecting with others, working for justice, inquiring and attending to the spiritual instincts and pursuits of this life), well, these are efforts that are actually part of a job description called "minister". And I have just begun this work....I mean, I started last week, for real. So we are early. Who knows? Maybe this blog will chronicle my descent into exhaustion, disillusionment, and abandonment. That's dreary, but all of that is a part of any effort, right? What I want to do is have a place where I can say what I am going through as I begin work as a minister in an interfaith community. What is interfaith? What is it like to start a totally new career? How is the training I received useful, and/or lacking to what I will encounter doing this? Who knows! Mostly I am responding to an impulse to share. Writing helps me see and know (plus, I am increasingly impatient with holding a pencil and journaling and typing is faster, so....). This feels like a juncture for me. An opening. A reckoning. If nothing else, it is something brand new and I want a place to put it. Hope you are having great day. Mine's off to a good start. Talk soon!