Silent, Directed Creative Retreat
April 4-6 in College Grove, TN
When I become aware of myself recycling old scripts, both within myself, and in my important relationships, that is an outer expression of my inner need for excavation. That kind of inner soul work requires silent observation and reflection.
My first reaction to the awareness that I’m running on a script and need to dip into the silence to reconnect with myself is resistance. Energy follows attention, so I can place my attention on other things in my life to keep the invitation for rest at bay. That is how I resist; I distract myself. There are many different flavors of resistance. When we can catch ourselves at it, it opens up a spaciousness to let the resistance relax and receptivity to come. In this way, our resistance is necessary and beautiful. This is the kind of space that a retreat such as this allows.
Read this poem slowly and be with it in a quiet space. Allow it to speak to you. Journal your thoughts. Ask yourself some questions. Where am I resistant to look inward? What does a few good minutes in the sun look like? What is a default script I play in my head often? Is it true? If it is false, what is the antithetical truth? How can I receive this?
The Rungs
by Benjamin Gucciardi
“Only the person with the green dice
should be talking,
I remind the boys, holding up the
oversized foam cubes.
And the others should be?
Listening, K. says,
and how should we listen?
Con el corazon, M. replies,
thumping his chest with his closed fist.
That’s right, I say, with the heart.
Who wants to start?
The dice are passed around the circle
and the boys gloss over the check-in question.
When they reach B., who walked here,
unaccompanied,
from Honduras three months ago,
he holds them like boulders.
We straighten when his lip begins to quiver.
It’s not my place to tell you what he shared that day.
But I can tell you how M. put his hand
on B.’s back and said, maje, desahogate,
which translates roughly to
un-drown yourself
though no English phrase so willingly accepts
that everyone has drowned, and that
we can reverse that gasping,
expel the fluids from our lungs.
I sit quietly as the boys make, with
their bodies, the rungs of a ladder,
and B. climbs up from the current,
sits in the sun
for a few good minutes
before he jumps back in.
The dice finish the round and we are well over time.
I resist the urge to speak about rafts,
what it means to float.
Good, I tell them , let’s go back to class.
After handshakes and side hugs,
I’m left alone in a small room
with a box of unopened tissues,
two starburst wrappers on the ground.”
Join us for a weekend of creative inspiration and contemplative silence as we create space to connect with self, God and nature. We will begin our retreat Friday evening and conclude on Sunday before lunch time. We will be doing creative projects and the grounds are open and available to explore, so please dress accordingly. You will meet with myself or another Spiritual Director twice during the weekend. Please note: We need the names, street addresses and email addresses of 3 people who champion you creatively and will commit to praying for you while you are on retreat. I will contact them listing specific ways they can pray. Please ask them first before filling the registration form out. Please have their information in front of you when you register. $200 is due at registration and the balance can be paid at the retreat. Total cost for the retreat is $435. This includes lodging, 4 meals, art supplies, and Spiritual Direction care. Click https://www.flyforwardstudio.com/retreats to find out more and to register..