15 years of work & a lifetime of learning

This weekend, I will present: The Relationship Course: Making Sense of Intimacy Between Men. It will be the culmination of 15 years of work on this presentation and a lifetime of work on myself. 

In 1999 I edited an anthology called: When Love Lasts Forever. It was published by Pilgrim Press. It was the stories of 14 long term male couples together from 10-45 years. Each couple told their story in their own words. 

I then created a workshop called: The Essential Elements of a Success Male Couple. I did it once. The trial was fine, it told me I could produce a good workshop and it told me I was not ready to do it. Many, many years later after the end of my 19 year relationship, a lot of growing and then taking the series of public speaking classes over the course of a year, I returned to writing workshops. The first one Shedding Light on the Sexual Abuse of Boys and the Men they Become has been very well received. I give it as often as possible as I don't think that we talk about sexually abused boys nearly enough. 

After that, I decided to revisit my coupling workshop. As I did, I realized that there was a missing piece to the conversation and that was about dating and the dating process. So I stopped work on the coupling workshop and wrote: Steps to Love: Making Sense of Gay Dating. I have been giving that one monthly since January and it has also been well received. 

So the next step was to complete the coupling worksop. It is here. This weekend, the new updated, much longer, The Relationship Course will have its first audience. I am excited, and nervous. The first one is always the hardest. And I have lost a fair amount of sleep and shed many tears in the process of writing this workshop. 

As I have completed the workshop, I think it can be described as an introspective journey into a gay man's deepest self as he clarifies who he is and how he chooses to be in the world. 

I look forward to Monday, the recovery and the review of the weekend. There are almost always revisions. Nothing like trying out an exercise on a group and seeing if it has its intended impact. That is the fun of live events, no safety net. As I learned in improv classes, there are no mistakes. 

Wish me well and send anyone you think might benefit from the workshops.