My family and I had the most fabulous Memorial Day weekend away. I am so grateful that it’s difficult for me to find the words to express it.

I met a woman at my Emmaus Walk retreat a month or two ago. Cindy’s a lovely lady transitioning into her own. Ah, change and transition is sometimes difficult and painful right? Anyway, she needed some help with some writing resources. She’s a gifted writer and now has the time to invest in her writing career now that her children are grown. Of course, I was more than willing to help her for the pleasure of being helpful. There is a pleasure in helping others and I am usually game to help wherever I can.

She invited my family to stay in her bed and breakfast over Memorial Day weekend, something she too would have done anyway. Just for the pleasure of being generous and blessing my little family with a little R&R away from home. She’s generous and thoughtful like that. That’s my kind of people.

We sat on the three-layer deck overlooking the fountain shooting out of the pond at sunset. Just looking at my baby, daughter and husband – my precious little family – blissfully eating a 7-layer Mexican dip, I felt very deliriously happy.

We’ve been asking God for abundance. It would have costs $450 to spend the weekend here,” I explained to my husband. “If God had given us $450 in cash we NEVER would have done this with it. We would have felt irresponsible taking a vacation when we need air conditioning in our new mini-van. But, God is providing us time away from the monotony of our daily life. We need time together as a family to have fun with each other. He also knows how to make sure we get it, by not giving us the cash, but giving us a kind friend with an empty B&B.

God is so clever!

Thank You Cindy!  

Post from: Blisstree

God is Clever

Hi fabulous people! I’m just coming off my spiritual high after being at a 3 day retreat, The Emmaus Walk. This non-denominational interactive experience was just what my soul needed. Absolutely no hellfire and damnation and total grace, love and joy. Bible recap: There were two men who were walking 7 miles or so to the town of Emmaus and talking about the very recent crucifixion of Jesus. Stranger comes and walks and talks with them about what had happened and interprets Jesus words. They invite the stranger to stay and then realize that the stranger actually is Jesus, right before he disappears. Obviously, my recap holds nothing to the King James Version, which can be found in Luke 24:13.

I can’t recommend this retreat enough. Not only did my husband’s experience transform our marriage, but I am feeling super-connected to the soul of the world with a faith that I can impact it in a positive way. And the intention to do so. Who wouldn’t want that?

I have been on other retreats and I seriously and with all genuine concern recommend that you schedule one immediately – as if your life depended on it. Really, here are some obvious reasons why a retreat is a wonderful experience.

Not one time did I have to think up something for dinner and wonder if we had all the ingredients? Nor did I have to change anyone’s diaper, get anyone a snack, clean a single thing, think about my work, think about my friends or husband or kids or anyone else who might be depending on my doing something. I didn’t have to remember any appointments or obligations. I didn’t even have a watch so I didn’t have to worry being anywhere at any particular time. I don’t know what time they woke us up or what time they sent us off to bed. Didn’t care. I didn’t have to worry about what I looked like. I didn’t have to worry about my hair or makeup or outfit – all casual all the time.

When was the last time that you have savored a total lack of responsibility? Perhaps you never have, in which case I must say – it is TIME.

Another great reason is what I’ll coin Commando Study. I’m a fan of what I’ve heard Dr. Phil call commando parenting, but what I originally learned from The Baby Whisperer. It’s where you put all of your focus on the issue at hand for say 3 days. You try to clear your schedule or put a lot of focus on say weaning the baby from his bottle of milk to prevent him from continuing to be a milk tyrant (my current commando parenting task). Spend 3 days of temper tantrums while offering only a sippy cup and refusing to give into demands for a bottle. Commando parenting totally sucks for 3 days – but then the struggle is over and you don’t ever have to deal with the issue again.

For instance, you might be having marital trouble and one thing you might do is go to a therapist. This might be effective. Every week you go in and try to work out what is going on and how you might be able to fix it. This approach will likely take months and months just to find out what is really going on in your relationship dynamic. It’s a long and painful process and seems to never end. Meanwhile you have to keep living together and struggling, (Well, maybe you’ve had better and quicker results than I have, but I’ve found this to be the case for therapists we have sought help with.) You might read a bunch of marriage books together about how different you are and how to overcome that.

An alternative to that long process would be commando marital intervention like the retreat offered by Gary Zukav and Linda Francis called Spiritual Partnership for Couples. I’ve not been to this 5-day retreat, but God-forbid we ever need it again, this is the first stop. It’s just better sometimes to get out of your comfort zone and climb right into the feelings, painful or not, and DEAL with them quickly and efficiently. And a 5-day retreat in which to focus on your marriage or spiritual partnership can’t be a bad thing. I think it would be great to get out of town and spend 5-days – all day and night – intensively talking about your most significant relationship.

I’ve gone on writing retreats as well and have found them to be wonderful. One of the greatest parts of a retreat is that there is no box they’ve prepared for you. You know, the convenient box people put you in and keep declaring this is who you are. Whether its mom or employee or the loud one or the shy one – there’s a million boxes and they are all probably just as confining for the person in them.

But, when you go to a retreat no one has any expectations of who you should be. You can go and completely reinvent someone new and they wouldn’t know the difference. Or you can go and be your authentic self and might find it interesting how the others interpret your authentic self differently than those you see everyday. Sometimes the people who love us the most expect us to keep being the same and don’t take our transitions, evolutions and growth very well. It’s great for us to go be that new self with people who didn’t know us when we had this job or that, used to party too hard, or just expect us to be a specific way.

I’m always a little bit surprised that people like who I authentically am as much as they do. When I’m on a retreat people tell me they enjoyed my company and I’m friendly and fun – sadly, I’m always a little bit surprised because I don’t hear that very often when I am at home trying to be my authentic self.

I’d love to go on a yoga retreat. I have been practicing yoga at my gym 3 days a week for about 9 months. I love it. I feel so much stronger than when I started. I always feel so powerful and empowered when I do it. Best of all I think it’s so spiritual, I feel my mind get some rest as it connects with God and the spiritual soul of the world and I really feel relaxed and connected during my yoga classes. I would love to go on a 3 day retreat and just really master a lot of poses and get really in that meditative zone and see where God might take me. I usually get a lot of inspiration for writing while I am in my yoga class, who knows I might walk away with the inspiration for the Great American Novel after a 3 day yoga class.

Whatever your interest, I strongly recommend a retreat of some sort. You deserve it!  

Post from: Blisstree

Walk to Emmaus