She’s from the Midwest, pronounces the letter o like it’s a capital O, and makes a killer meatloaf. My mother-in-law is in town from MinnesOta and she makes it a point every night to gather us around the kitchen table to play a board game or talk about the day.

My in-laws have been here for five days and it’s been manic trying to connect with work, ministry obligations, and two wild children running around. Last night after the kids were tucked in, the dishes put away, and a cool breeze rolled through the living room, we sat down.

Matt had his iPad, my father -in-law had his iBook, and me with my iPhone. No one said a word until my mother in law chimed in, OOh, it lOOks like yOu are all very busy with yOur technology. I guess I’ll find something to do.

In one swift swipe of her scalpel, she cut me to my core. My rotten core. Ruth picked up on a simple principle: Just because you’re near someone doesn’t mean you’re present. Though we were inches from each other, we might have well been states away.

The principle of being present is very hard to manage in a society that pumps out information like the heart pumps blood. The constant flow of content makes it incredibly hard to unplug, unwind, or simple just be. The directors of Catalyst are focusing on the idea of being present and spending time developing leaders to understand and take grasp of this concept.

If you’re free October 5-7, join in with thousands of the nation’s young and bright leaders in Atlanta, Georgia for three days of awesomeness. [Note: any conference that has a human cannon ball, Seth Godin, a Chinese spinning plates connoisseur, and Andy Stanley on one stage has got to be defined as awesomeness.]

I’ll be present and I hope you will be too.

As a followup to my mother-in-laws strategic guilt trip, we played a Settlers of Catan and I won. Should I have played dumb, misrolled, and not bought houses on wheat fields? Absolutely. But if you expect me to be present and engage with my MinnesOta mOther-in-law, I will. OOh I will. 😉