I hope everyone has been staying cool and enjoying traveling, pools, outdoor concerts and everything else wonderful that comes with this time of the year.
I decided that June was going to be my month off from traveling and planning. What with the West Ohio's annual conference, starting a new job, continuing school through the Summer and balancing...well...life, it was just time to rest and reflect on the journey so far.
I remember back to last year when I was starting my summer internship with the West Ohio Conference. The eight interns all took a weekend retreat for our orientation where we were able to get to know each other and really talk about our calls to ministry. To this day that was still one of my best memories and little did I know then that I was meeting a few of my most dear friends.
Lots of things happened during that weekend but I will always remember the day a pastor from Central UMC in Athens, OH came to talk to us. He gave us advice, a theology lesson and insight into the summer and all that lay ahead of us. He spoke to us of the importance of chronicling our spiritual journey whether through journaling or hey, even blogging!
So after re-reading the posts from the first half of this year's blog and being able to remember each specific trip, I realized a few different things:
Holy moly- I've been a lot of different places!
Holy moly- I have so many more places to go!
Dare I say I feel accomplished?
"My" plans really have changed significantly since January.
I have met some really amazing people.
But most importantly, I was comforted to realize that I have been myself through it all.
During annual conference I was lucky to be able to sit down with one of this summer's interns. He asked me what would be the best piece of advice I could give to him and I simply told him this:
"This above all:
to thine own self be true."
-William Shakespeare
Hamlet
Where's the next stop?
Methodist Theological School in Ohio in July.
Stay tuned & be blessed :)
