Longest birthday ever... in a good way :)

It's nearly 11:30 as I'm writing this over here in Philly. Today began at 6 a.m. with getting up and leaving insanely early (John, a fellow RACEr staying at the same host home as me and the only one over 25 and able to drive a rental car, did not grow up in New Mexico and therefore does not have the same appreciation I do for arriving at the last possible second, or later). Most of today was my fellow RACErs and I trying to get to know each other as a team through sharing testimonies and various "exercises". I came out of some of our sessions with really interesting headaches and am realizing how much I value peace and quiet. And when I say "quiet", I mean absolute stillness. I'm feeling less like a de-shelled turtle than I did yesterday (which I'm very thankful for) as I had about 5 minutes outside with only a bird for company, enjoying being surrounded by a rich earthy fragrance (which was rudely interrupted by the anchovi- and onion-scented salad-dressing I'd picked for my leafy greens) that candle-makers only wish they could capture. Being rather severely introverted, times like those help me find my center of balance. One of the key words of a lot of our sessions was "chaos", and I know it was difficult for a lot of people in our group to deal with that word and the ideas behind it, as there are a lot of introverted people here at this particular RACE event. There are no "dominant" personalities in our group so it's been a challenge for us to get into a good system with leadership roles being clearly defined.

I'm starting to lose my train of thought, and I'm a little too tired to go back and retrace my steps over this blog, but just continue to pray for all of us as we work together through our assessment process. Pray that we would learn to rely on God more as a group, specifically. Tomorrow won't be as long, but we have a lot of stuff to accomplish during the morning and early afternoon and we need God's strength and guidance to get through it :).