Some of you know that I attended a Pagan Clergy Leadership Development Conference over the weekend. Well, it was a fantastic experience, and I wrote a whole blog post about it! I’ve copied the first few paragraphs here for you, but you can read the whole thing on my website if you want
Rooted in Community: A Day at the Maine Pagan Leadership Conference
Over the weekend, I attended my first-ever event held by the Maine Pagan Clergy Association. I’ve been following them on Facebook for a while with the hopes of getting involved if I ever had the time and energy. Well, back in March, I decided to reach out with a presentation idea — and to my surprise, it was accepted! I think I was surprised for two reasons; one is that I have imposter syndrome when it comes to situations like this, and two is that I felt kind of odd because my first interaction with this community was as a presenter rather than a member.
Anyway, my presentation pitch was about building safe and accessible online community spaces; this is something I’m very familiar with! Since my entire magical community interaction has generally been online, and I’m a community leader and manager at Spells8, the online world has kind of become my home. Knowing how to make (and keep!) my “home space” safe and accessible has become important to me. I felt like this gave me a unique perspective to share, especially in a state that has members spread out in rural and remote places who may not have easy access to an in-person community.
Your experience was wonderful! I’m so happy everything turned out well for your presentation! New friends are always a big bonus. May the bonds be happy and lasting!
Honestly, at least two people there looked familiar to me, but we had never actually met it’s just one of those things, I suppose! I’m hoping to get more involved with their community, and my own local community, more in the future!
In most of my experience, that is actually a good sign. It means there will be a positive bonding.
Only once did I have a negative, but that may have been because I wished for someone to have a second chance when they hadn’t learned from their experiences yet. I saw the good in them before they were ready and worked to make their unspoken wishes come true. My bad. I learned to wait to see more of one’s personality before I do anything.
@Amethyst - @Mystique - @BryWisteria - @jayne → Thank you all! It was a lot of fun, and it was good to get out of my comfort zone and be around like-minded people in person!
This sounds like it was a wonderful event. Congrats to you for being courageous enough to offer your own wisdom! It must have felt very life-affirming, being with these like-minded people.
I enjoyed your article and photos on your blog very much. Thanks for sharing this event with us!
I will definitely try to go back to more events in the future. I’m such a homebody – it’s what I get for being self-employed and working at home since 2019 home has become my comfortable space, and leaving my home drains me faster than it used to. But - this is worth it!
it’s just one of those things, I suppose! I’m hoping to get more involved with their community, and my own local community, more in the future!
home has become my comfortable space, and leaving my home drains me faster than it used to. But - this is worth it!
This is huge! I am so proud of you for doing this especially overcoming the imposter syndrome! That must have been hard!