Celebrate!

This past weekend was one of the best weekends of my life. I was in Chicago for my D. Min. graduation and I was surrounded by my closest friends and family. I know I will cherish the experiences I had for my lifetime! And there are several reasons why.

I will cherish the laughter, the uninhibited silliness, and the meaningful conversation. It is rare when so many of the people I love are all together in one place and are able to enjoy one another so fully. The intensive time together (7 hours up and back in a van and non-stop activity throughout the weekend) was special on its own.

I will cherish the brief connection I had with my classmates. Over the past three years I have developed some friendships with colleagues who are fantastic. Unfortunately, because there are many from my program graduating from different schools, we were not all together. However, just being with some of these friends and graduating with them, made the weekend more meaningful.

I will cherish the satisfaction of completing a goal. So much of what of I do involves embracing ambiguity and being content with things being in process. I was surprised by how satisfying it felt to be able to celebrate the completion of this work, even as I know that this will surely lead to something new.

I will cherish the graduation ceremony. I was surprised by how moved I was by the graduation ceremony itself. We processed to AfriCaribe drumming, heard beautiful music from a Korean Choir and from the Chicago Theological Seminary Choir, and an inspiring address from Jose Rosa, the pastor of Primera Iglesia Congregational Church.

The weekend was great, and it reminded me of how important it is to take time to stop and celebrate the small and big moments of our lives. One of my "take-aways" from this past weekend is a commitment to more celebrations!