Share 4 Somethings – Wild Goose Version July 2024
For the 2024 edition of “Share 4 Somethings,” Jennifer asks us to share each month:
- Something loved and/or disliked
- Something accomplished
- Something improved upon and/or that needs improvement
- Something noticed
This month I’m sharing 4 things from my experiences at the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina that I attended a couple weeks ago.
I’m also sharing my previous month’s One Second Everyday video . . .
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Something Loved
- ONE-YEAR REUNION: CELEBRATING FRIENDSHIPS
Last July at the Wild Goose Festival, I attended a small Table Conversation on Saturday morning about creating affirmations with two women I’d never met. But within a matter of minutes, Naomi, Rachel, and I formed a strong bond. Since then, we’ve shared countless conversations and spent more time together.
I loved having a one-year reunion with these fabulous new friends at Wild Goose this July. It was a special treat to eat dinner together at Wild Goose (even if it was from a food truck and at a picnic table in the melting heat) and catch up again in person.
They are both strong, wise, and compassionate women.
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Something Accomplished
- GRIEVING OTHER TYPES OF LOSS
This year, Rachel led her own session at Wild Goose: “A Funeral for All Things: Connecting Those Grieving Nontraditional Losses Through a Ritual of Loss.”
Rachel’s focus was that, beyond losing loved ones, we also experience other significant losses throughout our lives—relationships, jobs, beliefs, identities, health, and more. She created a meaningful space for us to grieve these losses together.
During the session, Rachel provided us with cards to write down what we were grieving and place them inside a small casket. I’ve had several major losses the past couple of years so this was an especially powerful and moving hour.
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Something that Needs Improvement
- FORGIVENESS
Along with the losses I’ve experienced, I’ve also accumulated some grievances the past couple of years. I don’t like it. I don’t want to turn bitter, so I’m actively working on forgiveness. It’s difficult.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a session on forgiveness at Wild Goose based on one of my favorite books, Fred Luskin’s Forgive for Good. I discovered the book only last year. The forgiveness framework in it proved immensely helpful to me.
The session was presented by Lyndon Harris, a colleague and friend of Fred Luskin. Lyndon shared his powerful personal story of seeking forgiveness after working for months at ground zero following 9/11. I highly recommend Lyndon’s TEDx talk: A Journey to Forgiveness: From 9/11’s Devastation to New Beginnings.
I’ve since been emailing with Lyndon to stay informed about his future work on forgiveness, including a workbook he and Fred will be publishing in 2025 for Forgive for Good.
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Something Noticed
- FINDING BALANCE AS AN INTROVERT
As an introvert, I cherish my solitary moments at home, surrounded by many, many books. However, as a human being, I also appreciate the invigorating power of community.
The weekend at Wild Goose was an almost overwhelming whirlwind of words, people, and music. While I couldn’t handle such an intense experience every weekend, now and again it’s a wonderful and necessary rejuvenation for my soul and spirit.
What is something you are loving, accomplishing, improving, or noticing this month?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
Read more:
- From Bandaids to Water Bottles: The Power of Empathy
These 3 incidents at Wild Goose showed me the beauty of human kindness through small acts of empathy. Stay curious about what you can do. - Body, I Forgive You
My flesh wouldn’t cooperate with my spirit. I could either resent the limitations or find a way to work within them. Body, I forgive you. - You’re Going to Mess Up. So Do This, Too.
I knew I had overreacted. Now what? Return to loving better every day.
I’m linking at these blog parties
What a whirlwind of a weekend, Lisa, but so rewarding for you! Thanks so much for sharing with this fellow introvert.
Blessings!
We introverts understand each other. 🙂 Thanks, Martha.
As an introvert myself, I need that balance also. I have gotten a lot better but being around people can still be exhausting. Also, that grief bit got me; I have seen quite a few things lately about mom grief and how we mourn the passing of certain stages of our lives with kids. My daughter is about to have a birthday and it occurred to me that both my older boys are past that stage. Ugh!
“People can be exhausting.” I get that. 🙂 I love people and need people, but I have limits. lol. And yes, that mom grief is very real. As we and/or our people progress from one stage of life to another, there is loss (even when there is joy too). And we can give each other permission to legitimately grieve those losses.
Lisa, you are four kinds of wonderful. thank you as always for sharing your life and insights. I too am an introvert, and this vertigo stuff has confined me in ways even this introvert would not choose. Still navigating that, and trying to be w/ people as much as I”m able, including Zoom. It counts, though I would prefer in-person presence for certain. I can relate to an avalanche of books. Actually I think reading is important for intro- and extrovert, alike. I’m glad too about your adopting forgiveness. It’s not easy, is it? Especially when you really know you have been wronged. Small offenses are one thing, but those deep painful ones are soooo hard. What I did w/ a family member was to keep the door open by continually reaching out w/ cards, when phoning didn’t work. Periodically I’d send one. Now… the door has been opened, and I walked through. I pray this for you as well!! Just o.o. CURIOSITY, what is Wild Goose? I know it’s a Celtic term for the Holy Spirit, but I’m no thinking that this is what this was. I’d love to know.
Love you!!
xo
L
I am so sorry that your whole life has been upended by vertigo, Lynn. 🙁 I so wish I could take it away. Yet you still find ways to be an encouragement to many of us out here online. You’re a treasure, friend. I love you so.
What is Wild Goose? It’s hard to describe. It’s an outdoor weekend of sessions, conversations, music, art displays, etc., about spiritual topics and practices, social justice issues (lots of talks this time about the dangers of Christian Nationalism), mental health things, etc. They offer like 15 sessions per hour, and you create your own itinerary. So even my weekend and Jeff’s weekend looked very different because we chose very different things (for instance, while I was at contemplative writing for an hour, he was at a trivia contest, lol).
Sounds like a wonderful time!! Thanks for sharing.
That sounds like you had such a wonderful experience at Wild Goose! How wonderful to get to meet up with friends again. That loss experience sounds very powerful.
Sounds overwhelming in all the best ways!
What a wonderful experience! So nice to catch up with friends. In regard to forgiveness, while it’s an unpopular perspective, I’ve come to feel that once in awhile there are behaviors that are unforgivable. Fortunately for me there has been just one. In coming to the conclusion that the behavior was indeed unforgivable, I was able to move past it without bitterness in the same fashion as those people I have forgiven. For me, being stuck in limbo, trying to forgive the unforgivable was the situation that was breeding bitterness. I wish you the best on your journey.
Also, I really appreciate your thoughtful posts.
I hear you, Olivia. I’ve had to revamp how I define forgiveness because I agree that there are some things that are just unforgivable, especially in how I used to define it. “Forgiveness” (whatever word fits best and however one defines it) is a process of how I’m trying to create peace in the presence. I appreciate this definition: “Forgiveness is making peace with the gap between what you wanted from life and what life gave you.” I’m trying to do like you said, learning how to move past an unforgivable situation in a way that won’t leave me with bitterness. Thanks for sharing your perspective here.
I really like that definition of forgiveness.
I know what you mean about preferring home, solitude, and quiet, yet being energized, even if overwhelmed, by some gatherings.
How neat to have made and kept up with friends from the previous festival.
Interesting idea about the casket. Sometimes I resist visual/tactile displays because I feel I’ve taken care of the issue in my heart. Once at a ladies’ conference, the speaker wanted us to write down something we needed to give over to the Lord. She took all our cards–maybe put them in a bag?– and attached them to some balloons, then released them to symbolize giving these things to God. I thought it seemed silly at the time, and these days we wouldn’t consider releasing balloons environmentally safe. But a few days later, the issue I had written down came to mind, and I thought, “Nope, I’ve already given that to the Lord.” A physical expression does help cement things in our minds.
But I have speculated whether anyone ever found the balloons with our cards and wondered what in the world that was all about. 🙂
I participated in a similar exercise a few years ago with putting our confessions in balloons and then releasing them. I wonder too if anyone found them and what in the world they thought. lol. I agree with you that the real work comes in our hearts although I do remember the exercise more if I also add a physical dimension. (Although I don’t recall WHAT I put in the balloon back in the day; I just remember doing it. ha)
Thank you for sharing your Wild Goose experiences, Lisa. I especially like your friend’s talk about how to deal with all the loss experiences we have in life. There truly are so many types. I’m an introvert, too, and big groups exhaust me. I’m more a one on one gal. Of course, dealing with chronic illness doesn’t help any either. I really admire your courage to step out into groups and causes. 🙂 Love and blessings of sufficient rest in between!
Thanks for your encouraging words, Trudy. It took me quite a few years before I even agreed to go to Wild Goose! ha. But now that I’ve been two years in a row, I already look forward to going back. Maybe one reason is because I do have lots of opportunity there for those smaller conversations; I prefer those too! Introverts unite. 🙂 Blessings to you, friend.
I was still a bit confused what Wild Goose was…so I looked it up and, oh wow, that is quite an event – especially for an introvert. Congrats on going, enjoying and getting the most out of it! That would definitely be one huge step out of my comfort zone!!
It is a confusing event to try to explain. ha. There are so many things going on at Wild Goose at the same time, which is quite a lot for this introvert. Next year I may build in a few more minutes of time-outs for myself. 🙂 I did it a little this year and found it valuable reflection time.
Your small casket intrigued me. I found myself on my last retreat, naming my grief over things that will never be the same again. There was sadness yet also the reality it was time to look forward too to the gift yet to come. Process isn’t it?
Naming grief over things that won’t ever be the same…that sounds like a valuable exercise, Jean. Your insight on following up with anticipating the gift yet to come reminds me of this quote I saw this week (I’m still pondering on it): “Grief allows you to let go of something you’ve lost only when you begin to accept what you now have in its place.” Hmm…
wow that quote is powerful and right on!
Introvert friend here, Love my solitude, quiet, books, writing, napping, Jesus & my dog. I have panic attacks in crowds, you know I tear up and can’t breath, the whole sha bang. Don’t get me wrong I go to events “sometimes” with friend’s ( I have awesome supportive friend’s their great). I do have to say it makes me feel good that I’ve gotten out. I’m so happy you got to have a reunion with your new friends. And, yes there are sometimes other things, circumstances and people to grieve, besides loss due to death. Sigh…
{{Hugs}}
xo
Thanks’ so much for sharing your 4 somethings with Sweet Tea & Friend’s this month sweet friend.