Funny how some changes and mistakes can benefit us. Although a regular at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers conference near Santa Cruz, I missed the previous seven years before returning in 2016. However, my confidence never dimmed regarding directions, so I left the map at home. Never even glanced at it. A well-traveled route. But Palm Sunday came early that year, right at the switch to Daylight Savings Time, and the conference changed its close from lunch to a 7:15 breakfast, so I left in the darkness at 6 AM, hoping to beat the metro LA afternoon traffic.

Those changes led to my mistake. You need…