The past and the future

So- for a slightly different thing- I just got back from my 20 (ish) year High School Youth Group EYC reunion. It was concurrent with the St. John's 50th reunion/celebration- so my mom came too. What a great thing. In an easy world (not a perfect one) I would write great thank you note to those who organized it, and email all those folks I finally caught up with. The truth is I might get an email/thank you or two out and that will be about it.

It was fun finding a balance between listening and talking- and with a live band (nice thought with old EYC members and all- but hard to talk over) most conversations got no farther than spouses, children, home towns and jobs. There were the occasional "Do you remembers" but not as many as I thought- and besides 1 other scrapbook from the library I think, I was the only one that brought pictures. I have to resist the urge to think about how I would have run the event and just focus more on how much I enjoyed it.

I think it was fun to also see the older crowd, who were supposed to be in another room, gravitate to our area- lots of parents and advisors too. It will be interesting to see what re-connections are made, if any- for we all live hectic lives and most have kids and jobs. I particularly liked to see the old advisors- especially Beth L. I miss them! I don't think I did a very good job explaining what an impact they had on my life- so maybe I can do that by email. It was always good to see Paul- Wendy too-didn't realize they'd been off on mission field.

Hated to have to leave this morning and come back to St James- promised Debbie we'd do the song "Abre Los Cielos" from Ecuador. It went surprisingly well. I really need to tie up all the loose ends from that trip- and that's a subject for another blog.

In some ways, reunions are so hard- because you have to rekindle a relationship based on who you were 20 years ago. It was hard not to think of myself as 17 again- at least, not to think I was being viewed as a 17 year old again. In other ways, this was a perfect community for a reunion- those who were with me at the start of my faith journey- who nurtured me, led me, supported me and sent me out. What a wonderful thing to return and revisit. I do wish there had been more time- or maybe more structured activities- a quick game of drop the ashtray? Maybe more like do you love your neighbor. Then I really would have felt 17 again!