Recently, I had to attend a group retreat with about 29 others. We spent the entire time telling our personal journeys "at our own level of comfort". Some had a lot more comfort than I. It took 13 hours to listen to 15 people tell their stories. A few had trouble with knowing when and how to land their plane. One actually "stalled" in flight. For several of those in attendance, what was promised to be a relaxing time, turned out to be an exhausting and painful experience. There are only so many burdens that a person can hear at any one time.
Now it was my turn. Oh Boy! My turn. Fortunately, I waited until the second day. My story was rehearsed. According to my watch, I was able to complete my turn in a little over 5 minutes. And there were very few follow-up questions. In times like these, where you are forced to participate, get the basic facts straight, know ahead of time what you want others to know, speak slowly and precisely, and keep the agenda in your head. Believe it or not, those that knew me were taking bets on how long my story would be. Those that guessed short were right.