Super Sunday

I'm going to have a full day today.

After my usual caffeinated start to the day (coupled with keyboard communing), I'll walk over to Sandhill for the opening session of our annual retreat. This year we'll be meeting every morning from 9-noon for four days. It's a time to step back from the immediate, reflect on where we've been, take stock of where we are, and set goals and priorities for the year ahead. Think of it as sharpening the saw—Senge's habit #7—where it's a heart meld as much as a mind meld (retreats: not just for Vulcans anymore).

Having been mostly over at Dancing Rabbit since mid-December, I'm anticipating getting in sync with my fellow Sandhillians over the next few days.

Immediately afterwards Ma'ikwe and I will do some counseling with a divorcing couple trying to thread their way through the delicacy of who will live in the house they built, and who will find lodging elsewhere as both attempt to continue actively parenting their kids. It's tender and important work, walking two loving people over a bed of hots coals, trying to encourage them with assurances that the blisters will eventually heal.

Then there's a football game. There should be just enough time after the counseling session to scoot back home to stoke the fire and enjoy a cup of coffee before Ma'ikwe and I rendezvous with Kurt & Alline for the half-hour drive to participate in Roger & Mary Walker's annual Super Bowl Party. Yeehah! We get to critique this year's most expensive television commercials while noshing and generally yukking it up with friends. Who knows, maybe the football game will be entertaining also. You never know.

I'm really looking forward to the party because I haven't seen Roger since he and his sons supervised pouring the concrete slab for Ma'ikwe's house in the summer of '09, and I haven't seen Mary in longer than that. Maybe not since she stepped down as the Rutledge postmaster in 2007 (after a 17-year run). Yikes. At the very least it's time to sit down and have a beer together.

Depending on how late the game runs, I hope to have time after getting home to check email, post this blog, and work a bit on editing minutes from the two days of FIC Oversight Committee minutes that happened mid-January.

In my world, that adds up to a Super Sunday…

(… Which will be followed closely by Merrymaking Monday. After another round of retreat in the morning, it's back to DR to cook for Ma'ikwe's 42nd birthday party. Sometimes it's a challenge to fit everything in, but you gotta try. It's 48 hours of concentrated time with friends and loved ones, which is precisely what community is all about.)