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Tag: retreat

Elusive Balance

Published on October 10, 2023 
It is Tuesday and time to write a 'Slice of Life." 
Thank you  Two Writing Teachers for creating this supportive community
of teacher-writers!

I went to bed a little after 10 p.m. and slept deeply for ten straight hours, only to wake up feeling oh so crummy. I wanted to snuggle deeper under the covers, and linger in bed, in the quiet, all alone.

I can be a very talkative, ‘engaging’ person with others. I enjoy meeting people and hearing their stories. But, wow, sometimes it hits me full throttle:

I am an introvert

and

I 

must

find

a

cave

and

get

away

from 

all

humans.

Yesterday was one of those days. I had a full and marvelous weekend in the company of 20 women on a church retreat, in rural West Virginia.

The main house of the retreat center (a side view).

The surrounding nature was absolutely lovely – I always feel uplifted when I spend time in this gorgeous environment. The area is very remote with no wifi – which is nourishing, I think. I slept (poorly) in a bunkhouse with six others. I traveled to and from the retreat with two women. Conversations were rich and thought-provoking; it is one of my favorite experiences, to be on retreat. 

However, I didn’t get a moment to myself.

When I got home, I was just in time for a (planned) visit from a very dear childhood friend, who was passing through the D.C. area and able to visit for the afternoon and evening. There I was listening to more amazing stories – and finding myself 

on empty. 

Words and images were sputtering spitting spinning around in my head by the time I went to sleep – and, oh my, how to describe the bliss of laying down in my own cozy bed?

It feels terribly wrong to feel so exhausted from so much goodness.

What a gift it was, to wake up to a quiet Monday with no responsibilities or expectations. Write. Walk. Nap. Be quiet. Sip tea.

A day of renewal. 

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Retreat Together

Published on April 4, 2023 
It is Tuesday and time to write a 'Slice of Life." 
Thank you  Two Writing Teachers for creating this supportive community
of teacher-writers!

This past weekend, a group of ‘empty-nesters’ gathered at our church’s retreat center, in rural West Virginia. Let me share a few words and photos. 

The retreat center is small, with one central house for meals and fellowship, and three adorable cabins. It accommodates less than two dozen folks overnight. This was my husband’s first time visiting the retreat center since it went through an extensive remodeling. I have had the joy of being here twice for women’s retreats. 

View from our cabin window

The weekend had no agenda and no schedule, other than meals. It was a time to share stories and relax together, to connect more deeply than those quick conversations before and after church services. The retreat center is in a very remote area, with no cell service. Just before you arrive, you have to drive through a creek. We literally “Forded” the stream, in our Fusion sedan – and both of us agree that it may well be time to get a bigger vehicle. 

The view from mid-stream, as we drove through.

We all took turns with the cooking. Tony and I were on the Sunday breakfast team – my task was vegetable frittata. The kitchen is large and welcoming, making for a wonderful community cooking experience. People were in and out of the kitchen, getting their morning coffee and tea, and making conversation while cooks prepared the meal. (Sorry, no photos of food to share. Trust me, it was a yummy breakfast.)

We went on an arduous walk, through the woods and up this challenging hill. This is one of those hills where I breathed a sigh of relief at getting to the top, and boasted “oh, that wasn’t so bad!,” only to find there was another enormous ascent, just around the bend. This second one took my breath away. That dang hill was new to me – not something we had attempted at my women’s retreat. I was glad I did it – the panoramic views of the surrounding countryside were well worth the unexpected exertion.

We made it up the hill!

One friend found this enormous feather along the dirt road…it is some 20 inches long. She let me bring it home! (I love feathers.)

It was a weekend of conversation and connection, to ‘catch up’ on one another’s lives. Such a gift, to be immersed in nature, together.

The view from the outdoor chapel, Sunday morning. 
Thank you for visiting my blog.  Clicking the title of any post will open a comment box at the bottom of the page. I love hearing from you.

We Are From

Published on February 14, 2023

Have you ever written an “I am From” poem? I was introduced to these at a teachers’ pre-service professional development many years ago. The facilitator had each staff member write a poem in this style, and then we shared our poems aloud with each other. These poems were an excellent way for colleagues to get to know one another, generating a great deal of reflection and conversation.

This past weekend, Tony and I went on a couples’ retreat with our marriage enrichment group. We facilitated a workshop – – which is really a bit funny, since we’d never been on a marriage enrichment retreat before. Anyhow, there we were.

We had complete flexibility on our topic, something that would get the couples interacting and ‘dialoguing’ with each other. As we mused about our session, I remembered this fun poem sharing from my teaching days. I decided to change it up a bit – 

What if we wrote “We Are From” poems? 

What if we had everyone think back to how their love relationship began – to go down memory lane? 

What if we helped everyone to ‘brush the dust off’ their marriage foundation, to go deep about what brought them together in the first place…and just hold onto this magic for a bit?

We handed out pens and pads of papers. Each person worked individually, writing down three to five brief answers in a list form to the following questions:

  • Place – where did you meet? spend time? what are characteristics of the place, location, neighborhood, room?
  • Who – was there anyone else there? who else was important or stands out from that time? were the two of you alone? 
  • Food – what did you eat? anything special? homecooked? restaurant? party? add some sensory details, here
  • Music or sounds – what did you hear? listen to? any special songs jump out at you?
  • Activities or games – what were you doing? What was going on?
  • Words – what do you remember being said? Any phrases come back? Funny expressions?
  • Smiles/Laughs – what made you feel joy back then? When you think back to your special connection with one another, what makes you smile?
  • BONUS – look over your list and add in any other joyful aspects that come to mind of this memory…special emphasis on smells, feels, tastes, sights, sounds

After everyone wrote a list of their own, we broke into couples, to discuss the memories privately.  The couples turned their chairs to look directly at each other, held each others’ hands, and slowly read their lists to each other, repeating the phrase – “we are from” at the beginning of each line. This was so sweet!! 

As a grand finale, couples were invited to create one “We Are From” poem together – and to share these with all of us. These stories/poems were absolutely beautiful to hear aloud. 

When we reflected on this exercise, many people noted how their partners offered new memories – remembering different things. Everyone agreed that it was really dear to remember the earliest moments of their love stories.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This was our view from our hotel window, Kent Island, Maryland

It’s Tuesday and I’m grateful to be sharing with Two Writing Teachers

Night Sounds

Published on November 22, 2022

The afternoon sun on the Cacopan River in West Virginia

I found myself wide-awake both nights of the retreat, this past weekend. I lucked into the bottom bunk due to my timely arrival, but it did little to assist my being comfortable in the narrow unfamiliar cot. I was alone awake, in a bunkhouse with other women, listening to the sounds of the darkness from within and outside. 

I was fascinated by everyone’s breathing noise. Spellbound. Listening. Yes, we are women of a certain age, and we are no longer delicate in our sleep. A shift in our sleeping positions and here comes the whinnying, gasps, and snorts. My husband has nudged me many times for my snores, poking me when I am sound asleep, encouraging me to move from my back to my side or my belly, so that he might return to quiet. As I lay awake in the bunkhouse, I delighted in the variety of these sounds, and the ‘call and response’ nature – it was as if women called out to each other under the veil of night, offering a secret conversation. 

bunkhouse reverie

conversations continue
in the dark of night
snorts and snarls
chokes and spurts
gasps and growls
intermittent coughs
an airplane landing?
a leaf blower cranked?
unknown beast?
she settles and all goes quiet,
then she answers from across the room
stops and starts 
call and response
symphony of seniors

As I settled into this uncertain concert, I let go of the sounds within the cabin and honed in on the night noise outside, in the wood surrounds. I became transfixed by this unknown warble, an unfamiliar animal trill – was this a bird or a four-legged friend? It sounded musical, like a gentle shake of a maraca, a call emitted from deep in the being’s throat. The sound varied in length, as if conversational phrases – varying from 3-4 seconds to nearly 20 seconds at one point. Who’s out in the woods in West Virginia in the middle of the night? 

Over breakfast, I tried to describe what I heard, but no one seemed to know what animal it might be. There was no way to solve this mystery during my retreat, because we were very much ‘off the grid.’ As soon as I returned home, I began to investigate online, looking up what animals live in this region and what sounds they make. Isn’t the internet the most fabulous tool? I’m excited to say, I did find the source of the beautiful sound: the eastern screech owl. (I really like this YouTube link because you can watch the owl as they make the sound.)

“Observe and reflect, become a little wiser every day.”
- so sayeth an unknown owl
It’s Tuesday and I’m participating in the Slice of Life.
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers,
for creating this supportive community of teacher writers.