A Strange Letdown

It has been more than a month, since I went to the HSP Gathering in California. For quite a while, I felt very excited about having found my "tribe," and about the connections I had made with new friends. I worked hard to create a lot of web pages chronicling what it was like, and I wrote articles and posts on the Internet about the event.

In recent days, I have started to feel rather "flat." Even though I still am exchanging a lot of email with people I met, the volume has slowed way down... and folks who for a moment seemed enthusiastic and outgoing seem to have gone back into hiding.

I realize that it's the feeling of having "had" something, and now I am missing it. I am not entirely sure what to do about that. I have previously met with people I first knew on the Internet, and we became friends in "real life" as well-- but this feels different, somehow. Perhaps it's because the connection and sense of "community" was so intense. And because we all seemed to get along, so well.

As I look back on those four days in June, I am once again amazed at how 30-odd people could spend so much time, so close to each other... and never have an argument or an annoyed moment.

I miss that.