Personal Retreat

So I can blame it on the hermit crab but you and I both know there was much more to it than that.  I had been dreaming of a vacation for months.  My last several trips away from home found me sleeping on a couch.  I kept thinking how I wanted to go away and get my own bed!  And though I have always said that the mountains is my happy place, I have come to find the ocean to be a soothing place frequently calling my name.  I had been wanting to go to the beach for months.  And somehow my hermit crab finally gave me the nudge and the excuse to go.

 

I didn't really feel like I had the money to splurge but felt the call was greater than that concern.  As I began to make plans I thought of several friends who I knew would sacrificially join me.  Yet I realized that I felt the call not only to the beach but to go alone, well except for Hermie of course.  The year has been challenging and I sensed the need for some solitude.

 

So as much for my benefit as yours, I want to briefly share a few nuggets that I gained from my journey.

• Shrimp and Grits can be enjoyed just as well alone as with a friend.
• The more one is alone the more one begins to talk out loud to themselves or to her hermit crab as the case may be.
• The trip I took is one I believe my brother Larry would have enjoyed.  It is the kind I often said he and I should take - to a resort where we could stay put without riding around in the car. I thought of Larry a lot during my trip.  So many things reminded me of him.  It was a nice way to remember him and be grateful for his life.
• Sometimes God's presence is quiet and without demand.  I asked God several times to speak in the quiet of my journey.  I confess perhaps I was looking for some big revelation, transformation, or command.  There was nothing of concrete that I feel like God revealed.  But his presence was real in a hard to explain way.  There was the expected awe of God as I read Psalms  and listened to praise music while sitting on the beach.  Yet I also felt his presence as I dealt with the loneliness that came at times.  I sensed his approving presence as I read a Nicholas Sparks novel while sitting on the beach or knitting a scarf while watching TV.  He made my being alone okay.  It was restful and it was good.
• Upon arriving back home I found I had been sent a check, an unexpected gift that covered my hotel and gas cost.  Once again God provided.