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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

10 Things You Might Need to *Know* About Allume (#Write31Days)

October 6, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 14 Comments

Day 6/ 31

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All. The. Books.

 10 Things You Might Need to Know About Allume.

But a couple of first things first, What is Allume?  Allume is a community of writers and bloggers that seek to love God and others while allowing His light to shine out through them and into their spheres of influence. The Allume Conference  is an incredible conference within that community which is currently in it’s FIFTH year running. If you have ever wondered how to grow practically and spiritually in the world of blogging, please do yourself a favor and check it out for next year!

1. You DO Belong. Period. Whether you have been blogging for five years and have 2K followers, or you have just written your first blog post and your mom really loved it– there is no standard of “who you have to be” in this community. So just get that out of your head, pronto. If God has called you to write– and the chances of that are pretty good,  if you feel pulled to attend Allume– then just know HE will equip you, and don’t waste time comparing yourself to others. Everyone is 100% welcome.

2. The food and coffee are amazing. (Definitely not typical conference fare.) The meals are always a real treat and the perfect opportunity to make new friends. If you arrive early to a meal and do not have a “spot.” Find a table and sit down and then invite others to join you. Everyone is looking for a welcoming face. I know I was last year.

3. The speakers are all excellent. Between the Keynote sessions, the break-outs and the late night chats, you will be filled to the brim by the end of the first day. Take notes and give yourself time to process. I like to try to schedule an afternoon (or morning) by myself a few days after I return to “download” all of my notes and process a bit.

4. Make a loose plan and be flexible. With many great sessions available, go into the weekend prayerfully and willing to be led in a different direction. One of the most important sessions I went to last year was not one I originally planned to attend.

5. Save ROOM in your suitcase! There is a FUN gift bag for all attendees, and you definitely want to have space if you are flying. Also, there are some fabulous vendors present at Allume and some of them usually have conference specials– not to mention all the books!!!

6. Bring clothes and shoes that you feel good in. Layers are a great idea; the conference rooms can be pretty cool.

7. Business Cards. Most people bring business cards– just with your basic contact info, web address and social media handles. I like to include a photo, it really helps remember who was who after conference time.

8. Visit the prayer room. There will be a room set aside for prayer and quiet during the entire conference. Withdraw when you need to.

9. Be Fair and grant Grace. Last year there were 450ish people in attendance. Know that even with name tags, everyone will be making an effort to remember those they know both “online” and in real life. When you happen to bump into that blogger whom you “know” and interact with on FB, twitter, instagram, etc and she doesn’t have a clue who you are at first– be GRACIOUS. It can be tough making so many connections at once with what you know from a 1-inch avatar and who is right in front of you. Remember that even the writer with several books to their name is equally HUMAN and may not be able to make immediate connections. Just a humble plea for grace for all of us. For ourselves, and for others. 

10. There is an #Allume Twitter party, tomorrow night at 9:00PM EST!!! Please join in! (Haven’t taken part in a Twitter Party before? Consider using TweetChat or TweetDeck to make it easy to follow #allume.

Want more? Here is my Allume recap post from 2013. 

Stuck. (#Write31Days)
Go. (#Write31Days)

Comments

  1. Sarah Maes says

    October 6, 2014 at 5:17 pm

    Wonderful advice!!! Love this post!

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      October 7, 2014 at 3:32 pm

      Thank you Sarah Mae! Praying protection, peace and rest for you all these next couple weeks.

      Reply
  2. amyctilson says

    October 6, 2014 at 5:40 pm

    This will be my third and those are all excellent tips! Here’s a grace please moment- I don’t think we met last year, so definitely this year. If we did, forgive me. I figured out after I got home, I’d had a fever nearly the whole time. The only thing I’d add would be steal a couple minutes to just close your eyes and hit the reset. Much to take in. 🙂

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      October 7, 2014 at 3:29 pm

      Definitely, Amy! Love that input.

      And YES, we will meet for sure! See you SOON!

      Reply
  3. Amber says

    October 7, 2014 at 7:51 am

    Praying for you. I want your room mates to be great but not so great that you choose them next year at Declare. You are a fantastic women of God. May He meet you there.

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      October 7, 2014 at 3:30 pm

      You are just the best. And will always be my FIRST conference roomie. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Meredith Bernard says

    October 7, 2014 at 1:02 pm

    Now I’m more excited than ever…and can’t wait to meet you! This is going to be more awesome than awesome. 😀 xoxo, mb

    Reply
  5. Liz says

    October 7, 2014 at 1:23 pm

    I finally got business cards! Now I just need to get myself to another conference. 🙂

    Reply
  6. kasmith03 says

    October 15, 2014 at 5:49 pm

    Yes to all of this!! Can’t wait for next week!! 🙂

    Reply
  7. Debby says

    October 15, 2014 at 5:53 pm

    Thanks for this post, Cynthia. I may read it every day until I leave! 😉

    Reply
  8. katie says

    October 16, 2014 at 8:44 am

    This is a great list! I’ll be at Allume next week…my first ever. Excited and nervous, and wondering if I should get business cards. 🙂

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      October 16, 2014 at 11:56 am

      Hi Katie!!! So glad you stopped by and glad we will be able to meet next week! if you have time, I think business cards are a great tool– I have a referral code for minted– where I ordered mine from and it gives you $25.00 off if you would like it. Even if you just had some made locally with your name, blog, email, twitter, etc. and a photo if possible– it really helps people remember you. But if not, don’t stress it and know Allume is going to be AWESOME anyway!

      Reply
      • katie says

        October 17, 2014 at 9:56 am

        Hi, and thank you! I would totally take you up on the referral code, but I just checked minted and it looks like even if I ordered today, they wouldn’t get to me in time. But thank you so much anyway. Hope to see you there!

        Reply

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Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

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happygostuckey

I saw a magazine cover this week advertising the h I saw a magazine cover this week advertising the headline, “Ditch Gratitude!” 

This is my “No thanks,” face.
My grateful face.
My you-can’t-make-me-face.
Because no matter how long the list of things we still don’t know, I know I need gratitude like water.

Questions remain. Uncertainties abound. Reasons for concern greet us with each January dawn.

Hope remains and so do questions. The two have never been enemies, but cozy next door neighbors.
I’ll keep my gratitude, thank you.
Some of the rhythms we took up in ‘20 we will co Some of the rhythms we took up in ‘20 we will continue to sigh into in ‘21.
Baking sourdough, watching it bubble and rise and fill our BlueHouse with the scent of a good, long, posture of patience— I absolutely need a second serving of this.
While we wait, and whatever it is that we wait for— may the space between be made sweeter by the knowledge that we never wait alone.
You can’t tell by their joy, but the day I snapp You can’t tell by their joy, but the day I snapped this photo was somewhat of a regular day.

What looks like a winter beach vacation was actually the tail-end of a masked lunch stop in the middle of a pandemic road trip.

This sparkling moment of sun-splashed fun was sandwiched between brutal conversations about regular life, especially the hard parts.

And this is how it is. 
These bits of life that we never see coming, they are enveloped between all that makes us tired, weary, sighing pilgrims in a world that was never really meant to be hospitable in the first place.

This photo reminds me to look again at our year, our season, our circumstances.

To look a second and third time.
To keep looking as long as it takes to see that the joy of our right now isn’t gone, it just might be hiding in the shadow of all that’s hard.

Brokenness is never vague. And we don’t have to search very long to see it both within ourselves and around us.
Sometimes the weight of that fact is crushing.
And then, sometimes it reminds us even more clearly of the light shining in darkness.

Joy is an act of defiance against despair and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling rather defiant at the moment.✨✨✨✨

@hopewriters #hopewriterlife 
#feastingandforaging #hopelenses #getaftergrateful
Endurance can feel like standing still. Especially Endurance can feel like standing still. Especially if what we’re called to be about is the same as yesterday and last month. 
It’s difficult to meet each day with the same fervor and joy for what we are called to do, especially when at present, the progress seems small and immeasurable. 
But even then, perhaps especially so — our faithfulness matters.

When we cannot yet see the other side, the light at the end of this particularly long tunnel, we begin again.

Not because we will always wake with fresh energies and bright, sparkling hope for what comes next, friend. But because the God of Endurance (Romans 15:5) dwells within us.

“It is the grace of endurance granted to you by the God of endurance that provides you with everything you need to continue to be what he calls you to be and do what he calls you to do between this moment and the moment when you cross over to the other side. When difficulty exposes the weakness of your resolve and the limits of your strength, you do not have to panic, because He will endure even in this moments when you don’t feel able to do so yourself.” — Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies

#hopewriterlife
Stuckey, party of two. Always ready to run out for Stuckey, party of two. Always ready to run out for paper towels... especially if the store is in convenient proximity to a quick date for croissants and dirty chai for two. Love my forever coffee companion even more at the start of this new year. Wherever he’s going, I’m riding shotgun.
We have learned... The inestimable value of a goo We have learned...

The inestimable value of a good camp chair, for they have been used for everything from soccer benches and coffee dates to theatre seats and church pews.

What our neighborhood streets can offer in the way of an outing—from the colors of spring to the sparkle of Christmas.

To hold plans with the loosest hands possible.

To rejoice in things found. Time. Margin. ...and enough toilet paper to share with a neighbor.

To give grace and accept it for ourselves.

The hilarious joy of a group text complete with “have you seen this meme yet?” 

To pivot. And then pivot again.

To find more joy in candlelight closer to home, instead of the bright lights of traveled cities.

To perfect our pizza dough recipe and truly learn to prefer it over dinner out.

To work with yeast and flour again and again— until the message of waiting for something really good dusted our apron fronts and kitchen floors.

And in our house, we learned how to be unexpectedly unemployed. We learned how to honor that new found space with needed grief and desired hope. How to be grateful for true friends who prayed with us, held questions with us, and hoped with us. We were reminded of our true identity and that it will never rest in a job. 

In a year in which we’ve all lost quite a lot, you and I have been given so much as well. Some of what we’ve lost we have learned to be without. Some, we won’t go looking for again.

In 525,600 minutes and in all the things, found and lost and found again— there is far and away more to be grateful for.

And we choose joy.

✨Happy New Year, dear friends!✨
Not rushing too quickly into a new year over here. Not rushing too quickly into a new year over here. Though the one in our rear view window is one we wouldn’t choose to repeat, still it was one full of God’s nearness.

One day I’ll write it all down.
But for now I’ll just say,
we were not alone. 🕯
“Once in our world, a Stable had something in it “Once in our world, a Stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.”
C.S.Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

Joy to the World, friends.
Behold. The most apropos Christmas Eve 2020 desser Behold. The most apropos Christmas Eve 2020 dessert ever. Made from a wonky gingerbread cake that did not cooperate.
We shall not go quietly into 2021.
We will fight back with beauty and joy and candles... and fresh whipped cream made by an eleven year old with sparkly green eyes. 🎄❤️✨
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