Post Kundiman Retreat and Tabula Rasa

I've been back from the Kundiman Summer Retreat for over a week now, but in many ways this has been the most emotionally exhausting retreat. I'm so amazed and humbled by the courage of the 23 fellows who attended the retreat this year. I want to thank them for coming to Kundiman, ready to challenge themselves and each other. I know I was challenged and I know I come back to my regular life a more invested writer and father.

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I'll post more pictures when I'm on a faster network. Curse you Hughes.net.

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Like I said above, I've been recovering from the retreat, and by recovering I mean catching up on actual work. I've been in the process of reading proposals as well as writing a book review. All of these things have July deadlines, but I couldn't really work on them at Fordham because I was busy buying party favors, taking pictures, etc.. Now that all my professional responsibilities outside of my own writing have been seen to, I can get back to the business at hand.

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I had dinner with my colleagues the other night. My colleague and friend, Bruce Beasley, talked to me about how to manage a sabbatical. He mentioned how he becomes a little compulsive on sabbaticals and that working out of compulsion might be something to try.

So I'm going to try it. I've mapped out a calendar for myself. Summer will definitely be about writing, but also about some stewardship. I have to take care of some of A Face to Meet the Faces, as we have some July deadlines. (For those of you who read this blog and are a contributor to the anthology, please submit your permissions form!) I've decided to leave my weekends free and spend my weekdays writing, since both the kids will be in childcare (N at my parents and L at a daycare). That pretty much leaves me with a whole morning, Tabula Rasa. 

I imagine it'd be quite easy to waste a sabbatical by watching television and playing video games (I do both of these things), but I must stay on point.

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I'm trying to wrap my head around the new True Blood season. Huh?

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Current Spin:

Summer Saccharine. I don't know why this song came up in my head, but there's mention of summer, so I thought it was appropriate. ;-)