I am sitting at my dining room table at my house on a Sunday night. A monsoon is brewing outside. The sky is gray and the trees are bending in the wind. But there’s no rain falling. We need rain badly.

Oh…I have had such a good time this past month. First it was a week at summer camp at Covecrest in the mountains of Georgia. Then it was a week at our teen leadership conferences at the University of Notre Dame. I came home and helped out at our training conference for adult ministers in Phoenix. I spent the next few days at work, and then on Friday I rode down to Tucson for Steubenville.

I spent this entire weekend at Steubenville West, a Catholic youth rally in Tucson sponsored by two groups: the Franciscan University of Steubenville and Life Teen. This weekend was one of a dozen conferences that are held throughout the summer. There were 1900 kids who came from around the Southwest. I was told that a total of 31,000 teenagers will attend Steubenville conferences this summer. Normally I speak at at least two of these conferences each summer, but this year I am only doing one.

There is such thing as too much a good thing. I give all I have when I am at these conferences because I know everything I give makes a difference in the life of a teenager who comes to the event. But once it’s all over, I want to run far away to No Conference Land.; I know that tonight’s Mass at my church is going to be packed to the rafters, but I’ve attended way too many church services in the past month of my life.

I miss Candyce severely. She is a huge part of my life, and it’s been a difficult three weeks since I last saw her. I think I am just going to fly to San Diego this weekend to so I can see her again. My heart aches. When I am by myself, I quickly slip into sadness.

Still no rain outside.