when people say “i’ve been blessed”, if often feels somewhat cliche to me. but it’s really the best phrase to describe how i feel about the goulash of friendships “i’ve been blessed” with in various time zones and locales. a week ago, i posted about the four wonderful meals i’d had reconnecting with friends (that week included two in new zealand and two in atlanta).

this last week was a boon for reconnecting. wow.

let’s see… since i wrote that last post in atlanta, and flew to philadelphia the next morning, i’ll start in philly.

i shared a hotel room with tony jones, and had dinner and hang-out time that first night with tony, brad cecil, heather kirk-davidoff, ivy beckwith, and others from emerging church world. brian mclaren showed up the next morning for the board meeting.

had a bit of catch up time, also, with doug pagitt, mark scandrette, mike king and shane claiborne, with all of whom (except shane, i suppose) i have a long history of memories worth re-telling and details of life worth catching up on.

oh, and i got to have breakfast with duffy robbins, since i was in his neighborhood.

i was home for a couple days, the headed for indianapolis. in addition to my last time with the great “jh believe” peeps, i got to connect with a few extra friends: jeff buell, from texas, and part of the jh pastor’s summit, was there to observe the event, and we devoured some culver’s butterburgers together.

then i got to hang with an old intern of mine from my omaha days (well, he was a high school kid in omaha, then interned for me in orange county): seth rings.

i had dinner saturday night in the home of an old high school friend, dave armstrong, who i’ve only connected with a few times over the years (the last time was 15 years ago!).

and, now, to wrap up this string of reconnections, aaron arnold, the director of ys chile, and a good friend from our events in argentina, is here in san diego for a couple days, and staying in my home.

good times. i am blessed, indeed.