A bed of roses

So there's another person doing the Tuesday evening course that is from a very different Christian tradition to mine but they said something very encouraging last week, and I've been thinking and praying about them - and tonight I was going to ask if they wanted to meet up for a coffee (I even prepped some dates!) but they weren't there because they were doing AN Other Thing :( And now there's a 2-week break for half-term, so I'll need to get some new dates. And I was feeling so open, and curious about their perspective, and wanting to (metaphorically!) embrace my sibling in Christ! Well, it'll just have to wait a bit longer.

The session tonight was interesting because it asked us to come up with a vision statement - a verb, a target group and an outcome in less than 8 words. I started out quite confidently because I think I know what I want to do - but it didn't really fit the template. Am I looking at the wrong thing? Or sticking too rigidly to the template? Or just not thinking creatively enough? Not sure... But it will come. I believe it will come.

The premise was a good one, though - that the work we're called to is often right in front of us.

Speaking of work, the new PM was being very bouncy and enthusiastic today. They are generally very supportive of our approach and want to get on board, so I'm not looking to dampen their enthusiasm any time soon :D

Watched some more of Rex Sterling's FFVIII stream. He's really getting to grips with TT! His next stop is the TV station.

Hoping for a good night.

The thing about writing yesterday's entry so early is I missed out on capturing my feelings about the final meeting of the day - and now I have to relive them. So, I got quite disgruntled by some comments about my documentation AND a couple of my male colleagues got into a shouting match. Mostly it's a personality thing. If they were looking at a wooden chair with blue cushions one would say, 'the chair is blue' and the other would say, 'no, it's brown'. *facepalm* I sent a quick message to the person hosting the meeting, who thanked me for my support.

But it was good to have something else to do in the evening, so I wasn't dwelling on it too much. The Cultivate course is led by CHRISTIAN Christians. I'm really not used to sharing space with them at all, let alone so many at once. A number of St Bride's congregation are recovering Evangelicals, so that kind of company can make them twitchy. Because I haven't made that particular journey, I tend to be more relaxed about it. I'm not sure I'll get much out of the course itself, but I do want to get to know the other members of the Deanery a bit better.

I got home at a reasonable time, so I made a start on my talk for 20 October, which I did a bit more on this morning. I now have the basic structure, so I just need to build on it. I was going to pause my Nano prep next week and do that instead but I won't have enough time to finish the character sheets and plot outline, let alone the scene list. Darn...

This morning I watched this - a video about how video games make us better people, from sharpening our minds to increasing our empathy. I am absolutely certain FFVIII saved my sanity, and my employer a lot of money in therapy! The comments are also lovely and include someone with severe disabilities but who goes on the same amazing adventures that I do.

Today I buried myself in my 'darkside' playlist, filled with songs about risky behaviours I've never even considered indulging in. I was still a little disgruntled about yesterday, and then felt bombarded by the randomest stuff, but having Crawling, Sworn and Broken, She Talks to Angels, and Love and Violence blasting down my ears soothed my troubled soul. I also hope it's the sort of thing my Siblings in Christ from last night would be horrified by :D

But I got through the day and actually made progress on various things - and learned some more about P4W/Dynamics, and how to edit a report in PowerBI (not up to building a new one, yet!).

All-in-all a good day, I feel.