1. I'll bore folks out of their skull, or they won't have enough time to achieve a ritual mindset
2. I'll plan a lot, but get so lost in my devotion to Usas or Ratri that I'll forget that there are other people there with me, and I'll either speak too quietly or personally to the deities for anyone to "follow along" into a ritual mindset

1. Strike a match
2. Sing the Clergy Charm while lighting the candle(s)
3. Pray a seven-line prayer to Usas.
4. Stand "still" for a moment
5. Put on my necklace
6. extinguish the candle

O Earth Mother, ever bountiful and always full of life, we thank you.
To our Ancestors, who learned and taught us how to reap the bounty of the land, we thank you.
To the Spirits of Nature, green-kin and animal-kin who gave their lives that we might live ourselves, we thank you.
To the Shining Ones, bestowers of bounty and providers of blessings, we thank you.

167. So bless me Father: yes, I have sinned; given the chance, I'll prob'ly do it again.

1. Asking people to think before they speak is apparently "asking people to pretend to be something they're not."
2. I was never self-conscious of my finances until I got an email about how privileged I obviously am yesterday, and was, in fact, quite proud of how I've been handling them. I'm back to being proud, though.
3. When I started a Grove, I didn't realize how much homework I would end up assigning myself. I just don't know enough right now to write this rite. And that's a lot of homophones.
4. At some point, I would like to take a road trip to Springfield, IL. There's a mural on the wall of the Illinois Supreme Court that I want to see (you know, since Eris is on it . . . Well, Discord to be exact, but it's close enough for government work, and it is a government building). The more I think about it, the more obvious it is that I need to do this. Of course, I'll probably combine it with a very long overdue trip to Kansas to see the family, and maybe stop by the Protogroves in Urbana-Champaign and Kansas City for a rite or something. I hear there's also a Grove near East St. Louis now, too.
5. My carport is clean, my back yard is shaping up, and the front yard is next to be tackled. And, it looks like I've kept my promise of clear skies tonight, at least so far.
6. This morning, I remembered the feeling I used to have every day when I was in college, where your body feels healthy and ready to go, strong and awake. It's a wonderful feeling, and one that I sorely missed.
7. Wellspring isn't exciting me at the moment, for various reasons. Part of this has to do with a feeling of "missing out" on last year's Wellspring and being "left behind", part is a feeling that I'm going to have people demand that I "explain myself" on things (though I don't believe that I've done anything wrong to deserve that), and part is just that I have the traditional Han Solo "bad feeling about this."
8. I really, really miss some of my best friends.
9. Today's Buffett Oracle:
   
       203. What works for me might work for you.
   
   Thanks, Jimmy. I have some ideas of how I want to spend an evening this weekend.

• My parents came. This doesn't really sound like a big deal to most people, I imagine, but the fact is, I was able to share something like this with my family, a luxury that not everyone has in this community (in fact, few people do). My father called it, "fascinating. . . in a good way," while my mother noted it was "cool." We will count this as a smashing success.
• My Grove was able to attend. Not just a couple of members, but a large number of members. My theological reasoning for wanting to be consecrated at Summerland was because that's where I took my Dedicant Oath. But really, I wanted to be where my Grove could come, where they could stand beside me.
• The rite was embarrassingly about me. Of all the things that happened, this really weirded me out the most. I thought I was showing up to a Unity Rite, but it seems like every invocation mentioned me. I was, I think, too confused by this to be anything else. But I was completely startled by invocations asking the Nature Spirits to guide "this young man being consecrated as priest today" and such things.
• To an extent, the ritual got in the way. Around noon on Friday, something happened in a conversation that sent me into my usual working defense, and I started working on study programs for ADF. I mostly failed to fret about the ritual, bought my sacrifices at the last minute, and didn't script a thing. I wanted to work, not be recognized.
• But damn, the ritual was good. The ritual was a very good ritual: well put-together, well-run, and amazingly clean. I got a lot out of it, and I felt again like I did in that first rite with 6th Night, and like I have at the Summerland Rites in the past.
• I saw my name with the word "Reverend" in front of it for the first time. This actually happened two days before the main rite. What most people don't understand is that I've never seen a title appear before my name. Not once in my entire life. To see the word "reverend" written out and placed deliberately in front of my name was. . . amazing. I cannot possibly describe what I felt when I saw it.
• I found a picture that says it all. There are several good pictures on my camera from the rite, but one in particular shows me everything. I can barely look at it without thinking about it and how amazing it is to me.
• I realized that I haven't done much. It sounds silly to say, but as I was being told to look at what I've done with this Grove and in ADF, all I could think was, "I did nothing without you. I did nothing without the Kindreds. I did nothing alone." I'll stand by that.
• A Grove is not a list in the ADF Office; it's written on our hearts. I cannot stress that enough. I know what my Grove is, and I know it deeply and desperately.
• There is more work to be done. I thought a lot about this: I'm busier than I ever was before, and I can feel it gearing up for more. And I look forward to it more than I ever have before, too.

1. To those who were worried about people getting home safe: Both erienc and alia_egilsson have both gotten to their final (or temporary) destinations. Just got a call from erienc about 30 minutes ago saying she was home, and I dropped off alia_egilsson in Mansfield personally.
    
2. For all the people who were there, physically or in spirit, last weekend, a heartfelt thank you. Yes, I mean everyone. There are some individual thank-you notes that need to go out, and I hope I can get them all written and sent soon.

What should my parents have been told was "acceptable attire" to an ADF festival?