Sunday, March 24, 2013

Leadership, Late Lunch and Logistics

Roy just returned home.  He tried to ride his Trek in all this wind.  I think he had high hopes that it really wasn't that bad, but it is.  Watching the trees being blown about in the wind gives a clue. 

I spent Friday night and Saturday at a Leadership Conference done by Community Bible Study.  It was great!  The sessions, except for one I attended, were helpful and informative.  The speakers dynamic but genuine.  Words spoken from the heart without slick presentation and agenda driven topics.  Well, except for one.  About 24 from our group attended.  We had a blast with one another and had some great laughs Friday night.  I overheard several conversations this weekend by women, who I don't even know, say this is so much better than going to a women's retreat.  With the exception of a few men speakers, much of the leadership there this weekend were women.  A very nice and welcomed surprise for this Baptist girl.  The video clips they used throughout the weekend were some of the best I have ever seen here.  It's worth the time to watch it.  Another thing I noticed, the same words over used here in Houston are overused in the state of Colorado and Michigan, amazed (but no amazing, amazing), ramp up, unpack, and I think the term vision casting is synonymous to using the term, give leadership to.  Lots and lots of vision casters looking for minions to make their vision happen.  I think this is kind of like a Ponzi scheme in that you only benefit being a vision caster if you are the first to do it in the group of people you work and serve with.  Funny, Jesus told the disciples to cast nets not vision.  The sessions on teamwork were just about the best I have ever heard and broken down into simple enough bite sized concepts.  The session of what to do in the land between by Jeff Manion was deeply, deeply thought provoking.  It spoke to me and so I bought the book.  There was only one session that I didn't find interesting but fortunately my friend sitting with me has about the same attention span.  We tried not to act up but there were many things that made us laugh.  In order to keep ourselves quiet, we doodled, she being a much better doodler than me.  This guy was so slick and a tab bit egotistical but that's what bored and entertained us. What was refreshing about the conference, only two chances to buy resources.  So you didn't have people hanging out at the table the whole time. Not one used emotional tugs to get the response they wanted.  It didn't seem like it had been planned by a marketing person so the presentation was genuine and not full of production values and over the top graphics and lights.  The soon retiring executive director of Community Bible Study, Camilla Seabolt taught her session and her two breakout sessions.  She didn't welcome everyone, do the door prizes or give all the announcements.  It didn't seem like the farewell tour.  That is true leadership when one trusts staff and others on stage with important duties.  Camilla has my utmost respect.  When we sang the last song and it was over they didn't try to wrap it all up with a bow, they just told us goodbye and thank you for attending. 

After the conference I met Dena at Molina's for an early dinner.  It was delicious and fun to get caught up.  Then I headed back toward the prairie very full on both the Word and Mexican food.  Since I had stayed up till 2:00 am on Friday night I really thought I would be hitting the bed around 8:00 pm, but I actually made it till 10:30.  We slept in today because both of us were so very, very tired.  This is how tired we were, we didn't even go out for breakfast.  So there you go.

Wednesday night I needed to leave choir early and when I got to the car, what did I find?  A minivan had pulled so close to my side of the car leaving only about 5 inches to open the door.  Ah minivans, they are my arch nemesis.  No one was parked by the passenger side, so I got in the car and tried to figure out how I was going to get into the driver seat with two knees that don't bend.  I kept thinking, I need some leverage or something so I opened the sun roof thinking if I could get one leg out and up maybe I could have enough space to maneuver into the driver seat.  At one point and I do not know how this happened I had both my legs out of the sun roof.  Now I got to thinking about how this must look and that's when I saw the flashing light of....Deacon Patrol.  Their first thought isn't going to be someone must be trying to scoot across the front seat, no it looked more like a situation that couples who have no other place to use for, let's see how should I say this, to be close to one another do.  Really?  Why would this be happening in the front seat when the seats fold down in back and would be a much better place?  So I am losing precious time thinking about that.  I need to get into the seat with both legs before being seen by the Deacon Patrol.  I opened the car door just a bit, turned, got one knee bent and over and somehow, the other knee made it over the console and I was in business.  Now I have to confess, back in the day I would have done something to the minivan but with cameras everywhere, you can't take the chance.  I was tempted to pull off every other stick figure of family off the back window.  If only I carried an exacto knife with me I would have made some changes to the bumper sticker on the back.  It said, 'My Child is a Honor Student at__________.'  I would have exactoed the sticker to read 'My Child is a Ho.'  If you are a friend and drive a minivan, please do not be offended by my constant battle with minivans.

So there you have it, life at both extremes. 

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