Retreat.

Howdy partners! I will eventually stop apologising for the lack of updates of late and just start a post like a normal person, but for now - I am sorry for the break!

This weekend, I was blessed by the gift of a retreat in a beautiful center in Quarryville, Pennsylvania. Some of the women from a Church we have worked with before, in fact I met them the very first week I arrived in Delaware when I experienced my first retreat with our kids and theirs, invited me to join them free of charge on their annual women's retreat. This one was quite a different experience than the first! It was yet again in a beautiful area and was surrounded by woodland and a heck of a lot of snow. I was so ready for some rest and time in a different environment with new faces so I was really excited to go. 

I was able to travel with some of the wonderful women I get to work with at Urban Promise and had a great time hanging out with them some more. The schedule was pretty jam packed as these weekends often are so I was most looking forward to free time on Saturday afternoon. I absolutely love walking and exploring my surroundings so I was quick to take a hike! 

Saturday was such a lovely afternoon, the sun was finally shining and the snow was melting. Of course, I didn't consider the implications of ankle deep snow melting as I was walking but miraculously, I didn't fall over once! It was so muddy and pretty difficult to walk through the paths but that just added to the adventure. 

I decided to follow the trail to see the lake as I had heard it was a pretty site. I will mention at this point that I had taken loads of photos on my camera but somehow my iPhoto imported and erased them all and they are gone from the memory card :( I guess those memories are to be stored only in my head, sorry! UPDATE: I found the photos! Alas, I always take pictures on my phone so there are some survivors. I arrived at the lake to see it was completely frozen over so I just had to imagine there was water under there:

I sat down on one of the benches like the one you see above for about 30 minutes. It was so nice just to hear the sound of the brook next to me and the birds singing. There was no-one around to talk to but I could just sit and lift my head toward the sun. It felt blissful.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.

Psalm 23:1-3

As I was looking up towards the sun, I noticed a rather large bird in the distance. I watched it for a little while thinking it was just a hawk or something but then it got substantially closer, to where it was circling right above my head and I realised it was an eagle. 

I don't remember seeing one quite like this before. The way it just silently glided through the sky was quite mesmerising. I was pretty blown away! 

Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
 but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:30-31

After a short time relaxing, I decided I should probably move on because I wasn't sure what time the sun would be setting. I walked towards the stairs you can see in the picture above, the snow there was much deeper than it looked and the bottom half of the stairs was engulfed in snow. I realised I probably shouldn't have decided to do that but, too late! As I was out of the danger zone, I saw a sign saying 'Do you have all of your belongings?' Always a good question. I turned around to check that I did and in the distance, saw my trusty companion to every journey - my purple water bottle sitting on the bench I had been sat at. Chaos ensued in my head as I debated whether it was worth climbing back down those stairs for something so easily replaceable yet so handy. In the end, I decided to leave it thinking that if anyone took that path, they may retrieve it and we could have a beautiful reunion. 

 On with the journey. I had a map with me and felt overly confident in my ability to navigate but thought there wasn't much chance of me getting lost because my trail was only about 1.5 miles. I started to follow the path down hill after seeing a sign for the trail I was looking for. I kept walking and then came to an area which looked like it had never seen a trail before. I stopped to look around but couldn't see a sign anywhere that would point me in the right direction. Everything sort of looked the same. I started to panic slightly knowing that I had walked a fair way from the lake, had no cell phone on me  and didn't know when the sun would go down. I started to climb back up the hill through trees and branches, ducking and climbing, trying not to slip. I reached a clearing and found a big hill that looked fairly dry and I just started to run. By this point I was envisioning bears. Lots of bears. Big, huge scary bears who would eat me. Then I realised, if I were truly lost - someone would see my water bottle, my saving grace, and would find this lost, terrible map reader and rescue her. As I reached the top of the hill, I bumped into someone else from the retreat who seemed to be having the time of her life so I realised that I wasn't really lost at all. I just have a wild imagination. She encouraged me to head back and pick up my waterbottle because it matched my jumper so well. Following this logic, I took her advice and attempted the stairs once more:

Target's finest waterbottle.

Now I was back on the path I knew and loved and was able to get back to the center. I stumbled upon a friend and a cute rabbit in the nature center who 'liked to have her nose petted.' She loved that nose rubbing.

The end of an adventurous day!

We also entered daylight savings time so lost an hour of sleep which is never what you want to hear when you're still playing a game at 12:30am and breakfast is at 8am. 

To conclude, I often find that I get more out of weekends like this one when I'm wandering around outside by myself but I did really enjoy my time there with everyone else. We focussed on beauty, how we were each created uniquely, born with gifts and talents that show our attractiveness not solely based on our outward appearance. We talked about ways to let go of our fears and strongholds and move forwards in the truth that we have a beautiful creator and we are made to reflect Him, no matter what words may have been spoken over us. We also ate WAY too many snacks. But, who the heck cares. We are women and we love to snack.