God of this... everything

RWA in Washington DC was an interesting experience for me. Interesting bad and interesting good.

I've never been to D.C. except for conferences where I spent the entire time in hotels and boardrooms. I've never seen anything of the city or encountered any of the people.

I got in Tuesday, but my roomies were not getting in until Wednesday. I spent Wednesday morning walking around the city, and attempted to visit some of the landmarks. I have to say, I was horrified.

I cannot even begin to tell you what a horrible experience I had with the people in Washington DC. I can't believe how rude they were. I had a couple of girls on the subway ready to fight me and I honestly have no idea what I did, except look at them. Seriously. I looked at them and smiled, and I thought one of them was going to leap over the railing and kick my butt, based on her words. I met another woman in a drugstore, who was stunned that I'd be nice to her. Here's my act of super kindness: I let her go in line in front of me because I wasn't quite ready, and then, I held the door for her on the way out. Every sales clerk I thanked were taken aback by the fact that I'd actually thank them. I don't understand that way of operating. And they didn't understand mine.

I tried hanging out around the conference, but to be honest, I wasn't real thrilled with it. A few of my friends have said that they don't/won't go to RWA because people there are rude and mean. I'd never experienced it, so I would work to convince them that then people there aren't so bad. But after being snubbed by strangers I was just trying to be nice to by saying hi and making them feel welcome because I was unpublished, I couldn't hang around.

Because we were in our nation's capital, they had tons of people trying to lobby for their causes. Most of them were pretty crazy. Oddly enough, the guy with the big ACLU sign took great pains to avoid me. I ran into a guy wanting support for some African charity. I told him that I already give a lot of money to Africa already (which is true!), and he responded by saying that I should dump that charity and give to his instead. Now, I didn't tell him which charity I support, but why on earth would you tell someone already contributing to a very similar cause to stop supporting them to support his? He started trying to sell me on the charity, so I finally asked him if it was faith-based. You'd have thought I slapped him with a fish.

I walked away feeling pretty sad. Not so much for me, but for the fact that our nation's capital is filled with such ugliness... I didn't feel very represented, that's for sure.

As I walked, I passed a church that advertised a labyrinth. I love labyrinths. Someday, I'm going to build one, I love them so much. I get so much peace when I'm in the midst of a labyrinth. Since it was open, I decided to go in and walk the path. During my walk, I realized that even though I was in the ugliest place I've ever been, God is still God. As much as people want to take God out of the city, He is still God of the city. People can deny it, they can turn from Him, they can hide, they can do anything they want, and He is still God.

I left the church armed with the confidence of God. He is. Always will be.

So many people I know are in arms over the degradation of our society. We're trying desperately to cling to what's right and good and to fight all the terrible things that are happening. I've never been very worried about it. That day, in the church, I realized why. As the world around us crumbles, we have something far more valuable to cling to. No matter what happens in this world, God is still God.

I had peace the rest of the conference. The rest of my friends came in, and surrounded by people who know and love me, people who are a part of my extended family, and it was lovely. I didn't run into any more rude insecure women who thought that a contract made them better than me and yet not good enough themselves to be confident in that knowledge. I had some really positive meetings. I connected with people who believed in me and my abilities. But mostly, I knew that even without all of that, I had the one thing that mattered.

Starting with my walk in the labyrinth, and throughout the weekend, this is the song that went through my head. And yes, I like the Tomlin version better (sorry Bluetree).