Conference 09...Day Five...Carrie Speaks and Navy Night

Chaplains' Conference Monday is something to which I normally look forward. The speakers and topics are most always fantastic, and we arrive knowing we are in for a feast of information and inspiration. This year, however, was a bit different. I was speaking at the luncheon this year. Many of my friends have done it in years past and have done an amazing job...I just really doubted my ability to provide anything earth-shattering.

And I honestly don't write that to be modest. (I am full of pridefulness, trust me!) It's just that my assigned topic (which is always the same in some variation) was "Resiliency during times of family separation" and to be perfectly honest...during the last deployment, I wasn't feeling particularly resilient. I had a hard time on SO many levels that I won't drudge back up here.

And I also don't have a particularly hard time with public speaking. I don't LOVE it...but I don't dread it either...I can do OK...but I had such a hard time with this one...so hard that I had to write down every word and try my best to remain emotionally distant from what I was speaking while not sounding like a recording.

I think that was part of the anxiety I was feeling, too...it was being recorded...and distributed to people. Not to mention, I was the "warm up act" for one of the General Auxiliary Members of our Church, Barbara Thompson. That was also a little daunting.

In fact, I was so not wanting to do this, that when they asked me to speak a couple of months ago, I almost said, "How about after the next deployment? I promise, next time, I'll single-handedly make my entire community a better place to live and I'll come in here and tell you all about how I did it." I thought that might doom me to having to actually endure another deployment, though...so I thought better of it.



And here is a room full of the loveliest sisters, on Monday morning during our wives' breakout session. The ladies who spoke here were all so inspirational, as always.


Some of my favorite people (Jen and Amy)



Another one of my faves (Amy)...and she did a great job speaking, too.

Lunch was great...the company, anyway. The food I hardly touched, although I'm sure it was just as good as last year...and the year before that, and the year before that, etc. (The menu has been the same...chicken salad in a v-cut cantaloupe half...since the the advent of this luncheon.) The BEST part being I didn't fall down in a heap of tears, unable to continue. That's really all I could ask for...that, and it was over!

The BEST part about Monday night, though...is NAVY NIGHT! In recent history, the Navy Chaplains have been the smallest community of the 3 branches in our church. We are a very tight-knit group. We started this tradition with the Whitakers about 6 years ago with a trip up to Park City for dinner. The next year we invited the rest of our Navy peeps...and each year it became something that grew as our ranks grew, and that we all look forward to. Here are some highlights:


Our location has evolved over the years...Olive Garden, PF Changs, and last year we chose Buca di Beppo. They had such a nice set up for us and did such a great job, that we knew it had to be our location again this year. They did not disappoint.

We had a record turn-out...and this wasn't even everyone! We are SO blessed to have so many great Chaplains coming down the pipeline who want to go Navy!

Check out all this yumminess:















Jen had a great idea this year (well, I'm sure she has great ideas EVERY year...but I mean one in particular). Since it's so hard to visit with everyone at such a long table, about every 20 minutes, we all picked up our place settings and moved 2 spaces to the left. It worked out well, and we each got a chance to visit with most everyone.

Aren't these some good looking folks?:



And of course, the outtakes:




Another successful Navy Night...here's to next year!