So, let’s say that you just experienced something life-changing. Maybe you broke your ankle, and it didn’t quite set properly. A series of events spills forth from that moment. Maybe you meet someone at the hospital emergency room, and you start dating, but he turns out to be a total asshole. Maybe while struggling with the pain of the injury and the relationship, you go back to the Methodist church you attended in college, and find some community there, and rekindle your faith in God. Maybe you have to give up your job at Target with all the standing and you start working temp jobs.

How do you even begin to frame the story of that one simple event and its impact on your life? Do you gripe about how you can’t train for that triathlon, or how unreliable men are? Do you turn it into a faith-promoting narrative, of how God set this trial on you, and how you returned to him and found peace? Do you grumble about the economy and your struggle to get good health care benefits?

Which is my roundabout way of saying that I just went through six weeks of life-changing meetings, moments, and personal epiphanies, and I’m only at the beginning of the cascade of events that follow. How do I even begin to tell this story?

And of course, by choosing to not just follow my initial impulse and write a straight week-by-week account of significant events, and by writing this pre-post, I’m already framing this narrative in a particular way.

I know this tells you very little about the Clarion West Workshop (except maybe that it seriously fucked with my head), but it gives you a window into where I am now.

Anyhow, consider this a warning shot–there will be more Clarion West posts to come!