Onward and Upward

Tomorrow morning a bunch of us will convoy to a city West of here (only 600 km!!! Bonus!!!) for the Annual Meeting of the Conference of Manitoba & Northwestern Ontario.

For the first time in a lot of years, I'm actually kind of excited about it. For so long it has been a very long, very exhausting weekend that I simply had to "get through" one day, one hour, one minute at a time. I would arrive home on Sunday ready to sleep in a dark room with my ice for days.

I don't know how I will respond to the schedule, as it is quite intense and involves extremely long days of both business and keynote addresses. I know that messing up my sleep patterns triggers my headache, so I'll need to be sure to do the early to bed, early to rise thing for sure. I will need to watch what I eat and be aware that while I have so much more energy than I have had in past years, I still need to be vigilant about self-care as the weekend unfolds.

In an odd way, it feels like my first Conference visit all over again.

The best part will be on Sunday when a dear friend has asked me to one of his two representatives to lay hands upon him as he is recognized as an ordained minister in the UCC (by transfer from another denomination). I had the privilege of laying hands on another friend as she began her ministry as a Designated Lay Minister. These are powerful moments. If the United Church had another sacrament, I would say this is it - the recognition, commissioning and ordaining of new ministries.

Catch ya on the other side. Have a good weekend everyone!