I am home. Re-entry was a bit brash, as I left a week of blissful quiet the first stop in my re-entry was the Denver International Airport with 5000 of my closest friends. I would have liked to have eased into the world a bit more gently but it was not to be. My husband met me with a smile and a romantic dinner replete with flowers. Life is good.
I have touched base with all of my children, who are still puzzled by mom's ability to go away alone and spend a week not talking. Oh if they only knew how often I had wished for that when I had four children at home ages 6 and under. :) But for everything there is a season. And mom couldn't do that when they were little, but she can now.
Retreat was wonderfully relaxing, insightful, prayerful, renewing, uplifting and a great big "ahhh" in the midst of a busy world. Many don't have an experience of what going on retreat means. I went on what is called a directed retreat, you meet with a spiritual director an hour each day. Through discussion and prayer the spiritual director will for lack of a better word, "assign" a scripture, an image, a prayer, a concept to meditate and pray on through the day until the next time you meet. Through an Ignatian perspective this will evolve and develop over the days to come. So your day is spent in prayer, rest, relaxation, (I will admit to a nap or three.), walking,
stitching, reading as well as Mass (though not required) and meals. It is surprising how much more time you spend over a meal when no one is talking. And of course you still get to "people watch" And another surprise was that not only were there a lot of people there, almost 40, but there was a cross section of life and age. It wasn't all nuns or old people. There were professional people, religious, lay people, young people and everyone in between. And not all Catholic. Prayer, reflection and quiet is not an exclusive club. To my surprise there was even a very young woman there making a 30 day silent retreat and she is getting married next month. All I can say is her mother is a saint!
I did slip in some stitching while there and the embroidery on my pink linen day gown is done and I am getting ready to construct it. That is also exciting. "Film at 11!"
So all in all if you get the chance to retreat I highly recommend it.
