Retreat

Childlike.  Lack of Control.  All is new a different.  Routines and schedules are forgotten.  We are here empty, starting anew. 

What was initally a frustration has become quite liberating.  All the daily concerns and distractions of home are absent.  No cell phones, no internet, no TV, no vehicles. 

Think about that!!!  This is what I've learned:

• A phone call is not required everytime my husband is late or my hands are idle.  He'll show up.  I can be patient.  

• I only really require 10 minutes on the internet once a day to check my email and cut and paste a blog entry (written the night before).

• A book can be just as entertaining as the television.  Chances are it's a lot more educational too. 

• Walking is virtuous.  The fresh air, a stunning landscape, and the sounds of the environment are worth the extra time and effort.  There are never traffic headaches on our dirt path!

    

 

All we are left with is quiet.  And it is so refreshing.  Matthew and I, who I think have a strong relationship, have spent more time talking and listening to each other.  Problemsolving.  Creating.  Sympathizing.  Supporting.  We have really made an effort to make time to communicate.  To discuss issues and life in a way that our routines at home don't allow.  Time to share and time to pray.

In this way it has become a retreat for us.  A way of recentering our life, refoucusing our energies, a way of discerning what is really important and where we are being lead.  It is a great way to begin this next phase of our life... as we leave the great community we've built in Columbia... as we become infants again in California.