Holden Village

Retreat: (1) an act or process of withdrawing especially from what is difficult, dangerous, or disagreeable, (2) a place of privacy or safety, (3) a period of group withdrawal for prayer, meditation, study or instruction under a director

All three of these definitions of the word retreat are appropriate explanations of what I did while on vacation at Holden Village in Washington. In previous posts I've alluded to both personal and professional issues/anxieties I had been experiencing before vacation, which, now that I've returned, have not been completely resolved. I have to admit that some of the appeal of vacation was the opportunity to retreat: withdraw from difficulties. The beauty of the time spent at Holden Village, a place where I had no access to the phone or the internet, meant that it was also a retreat: a place of privacy and safety. It might have been the first time since I started my call when I felt that, for an extended period of time, I was genuinely relaxed and allowed the freedom of not even thinking about the congregation. (There were of course times I thought about it a little when people asked what I did and I talked about being a pastor, but I didn't have to WORRY or plan.) It was also a time of retreat: prayer, meditation, study, and instruction. I did a lot of reading, some for fun and some related to faith and leadership. I learned how to weave on a loom. I did a lot of prayer/meditation/worship. And I was involved in discussions about living learning communities. I enjoyed my experience at Holden so much, that I didn't want to return to NJ. But I obviously did return, and now I'm trying to adjust to post-vacation work and life, while still reflecting and appreciating the blessing that Holden Village has been (and hopefully will be) in my life.

Got Mountains?

Awed. Refreshed. Excited. Renewed. Blessed.

These are just some of the things I felt on my two-week vacation to Seattle and Holden Village. My appreciations of both city and "the outdoors" were satisfied by these two very different, but both very awesome places.

Seattle adventures included Pike Place Market, the art museum, the library, the Space Needle, the Experience Music Project, the Fremont Troll, Theo Chocolate Factory, Jimi Hendrix's grave, REI superstore, Luther's Table, a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island, Sunday morning worship at Our Savior Lutheran Church and Sunday evening compline at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral.

Holden adventures included getting there (car, boat, and bus!), relaxing, eating, meeting people, reading, relaxing, worship, hiking, weaving, viewing the Royal Wedding, napping, conversation, ice cream, and more relaxing.

This is my brief review for now, but there will be more to come. In the meantime, check out http://thirtybefore.wordpress.com to read Mandy's review and see more pictures.

April showers

I have come to the end of another busy week, but it was one that has left me feeling much less frazzled and much more positive than I have after some other weeks this month. I can't believe we're almost in May already, but I'm pretty thankful for it, to be truthful. A good portion of the end of March through April was pretty crappy, and I'm ready to move on. I have a new car that's working great so far (and getting great gas mileage, woohoo!), I had a nice visit from my parents and I will see them again soon, we're in the season of Easter and focusing on resurrection, I accomplished quite a bit this week, and I'm only 3 days away from the start of my vacation, and one week from Holden Village! I am now in the last few days of working to make sure everything that needs to be done before I leave gets done, both for work, and for my trip. I was able to make a lot of reservations/plans for the trip this week and I'm feeling much better about it (I was getting pretty nervous last week). Now I think I will spend the rest of my evening catching up on some TV shows and perusing my Seattle guidebook.

Mother-Daughter Time

I haven't posted in quite a while, but there's not too much to update you on. I did get to go home for a week of vacation at the end of May, which was wonderful. I was able to relax and spend time with my family and friends. I actually enjoyed spending a few days in my hometown (though it's not a place I would want to move back to), and I got to spend some time at camp (Lutherlyn) with Mandy, and had my first kayaking experience (on a lake, nothing too intense). After that it was back to the grind at my internship. June was spent doing most of the regular stuff I've been doing, in addition to some activities at the church wrapping up for the summer. And now we're in the middle of Vacation Bible School, which is both a lot of work and fun. Luckily for me, my part is more fun than work. :) Now that July is here, I only have a month and a half left of my internship, so I'm working on doing all the writing that comes with the end of the year (evaluation, project report, candidacy approval essay).

I did have a nice little break this past weekend, because my mom came to visit. My dad hasn't been doing great health-wise lately, so he didn't feel up to coming. So we had some nice mother-daughter time, just the two of us. She got here Friday afternoon, and left Tuesday morning. I did have to do some work while she was here (Sunday and Monday, naturally), but I was holding down the fort last week while my supervisor was on vacation, so he let me go a little light on the work while she was here. We mostly relaxed, went out to eat a couple times, and went to the beach. June was a rather rainy month here at the shore, so over the weekend was actually the first time the weather was consistently nice and I could actually go to the beach. It was pretty nice almost the whole time she was here (and now today the rain is back). I'm glad we got some good beach time in, and I'm sure my mom was too. And I'm glad she made the long drive out here so we could spend some time together.