"Back in the saddle again"

Well, I'm back. The retreat went fine, although it ended up feeling more like a professional conference than a spiritual experience. Something a little different every year, I suppose.

I had madly agreed to preach this past weekend as well. Fr. gave me the option of switching weeks but I thought "I"ll have plenty of time on retreat to prep my homily." And between this and that, I didn't actually print the hard copy until the same time I was vesting for mass. Ugh. But the final product turned out pretty good. I'm beginning to feel more and more that writing a homily is like drawing a picture: you have the idea in your mind, the trouble is getting it to transfer properly. It is always more lively and powerful in my imagination.

As I came back to my office I discovered that someone had upgraded my computer--not something that I typically complain of--but has not, as yet, bothered to transfer any of my files from it to my new system. I don't need those files yet, but this makes me anxious. The first thing that I did was to make myself a new account and change all of the settings and background. My computer is an extension of me; it must conform--according to it's capacity--to my image and likeness.

So, I'm gearing up for busy start to the week. Yesterday everywhere I turned people were coming to me and saying "good, now that you're back can we talk about--"whatever it was that they wanted to do. I'm still a little tired from a busy weekend (I understand now why so many pastors take Mondays off) but it is nice to be here and, as my cowboy-lovin'-pastor would say, back in the saddle again.