Talks in church

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Gave talks in church today, the topic was "The Atonement and how I personally relate to it", or something along those lines. It was a very flexible thing we were given, and Eric and I joked that it sounded a bit like "The Atonement, and how it worked for this grievous sin, and this sin, and this sin..."  We were given the assignment 2 weeks in advance (woo!), and so it was bubbling around in my head for a lovely bit of time. We've realized that my and Eric's way of getting inspiration are a bit different-- my thoughts have to simmer for a while, and I get flashes of insight when I'm not actively thinking about it, and Eric likes to sit down all at once and think it out. Sometimes he'll lay down on the floor and just meditate with his eyes closed, and then suddenly sit up and scribble away. I love that we're not all the same, and both talks turned out well.

I found it easiest and most relevant for me to talk about the Atonement and perfectionism in terms of ballroom metaphors, and Eric talked about the theme from the movie Meet the Robinsons, "Keep moving forward." Our talks actually dovetailed quite nicely, and we had a horde of people come up afterward to say how much they liked our talks and what powerful/engaging speakers we were. I was absolutely relieved that the congregation understood the dance terms I used, and to be honest, I was actually quite nervous to give my talk. It was a bit strange, in the past I would be pretty calm right up until I stood up at the podium, and then be nervous and talk too fast. Today though, I was steadily growing more nervous throughout the morning, and my stomach was flip-flopping, until about 10 minutes before my talk. Then I got up and gave probably the smoothest delivery ever. I wasn't even as practiced with the words as I normally am... I wonder if it was because I was giving a lesson on letting go of perfectionism and I gave myself permission to goof up that I wasn't so worried about actually goofing up :)

Anyway, I'll probably post my talk here or provide some sort of link to it. Have a beautiful Sabbath, everyone!