Back to the Wayside Inn

We straggled in yesterday and last night, at least most of us. A few are not here because of illness or the illness of a spouse. One is away on sabbatical.

Some fresh or refreshed, some bedraggled (me, with my back acting up in unpleasant ways), but however we’ve gotten here, we have arrived. 

The program (bolstered with heavy traditional New England fare at each meal, and what appears to be a never closed bar, although that may just seem so to a teetotaller…) kicked off with a powerful reflection on the Unitarian Universalist Trauma Response Ministry by our guest presenter the Reverend Aaron Payson. Our next speaker was me. I’d been asked to speak on how Buddhism had influenced my ministry which was, by a wondrous coincidental alignment of the stars also the subject of my sermon yesterday. After lunch we heard from the Reverend Frater John Gibbons, who touched upon several subjects but the thread was his experiences with the Unitarian Universalist Partner Church Council. Also quite moving.

We are now on a break. But soon will waddle downstairs to more heavy (no knock on the Inn, they’re just providing what our seniors ask for) traditional New England fare.

Later this evening we’ll have another meeting where the fraters will all speak of this and that.

Then the evening closes with the traditional Flowing Bowl, a tradition I don’t usually attend as the bowl flows with booze…

Tomorrow, well, that’s tomorrow…