God is an incredibly gifted artist. Every night his brush was at work creating scenic sunset views over the Potomac. He artfully engages all of the senses, including summer sounds of cicadas and birdsong, crickets and frogs.

The practice of an annual retreat is a gift. This is undeniable. The question is: will you create this space for yourself and protect the sanctity of it? That’s right! If you want to take in the fullness of the experience you will need to put your electronics away. You need this brain space. You need this decluttering of the mind. The only question left is how long you will spend on retreat. Whether you choose a weekend or a week, we all need to rest and recreate in the presence of God alone. I have always found this time to be so healthy for my family dynamics as well. Time away interjects a bit of air into the relationships. Family members all realize that someone special is missing. The one who sees to every last detail has empowered each child to take ownership of his or her own needs for a few days, with the help of older siblings and dad of course. The reality that things cannot possibly be the same without mama’s attentiveness makes everyone appreciate the gift of a loving mother even more. My absence is good for everyone.

As a caregiver, I have spent decades nurturing the souls fo my children, meeting physical , emotional, spiritual and financial needs. These 8 days of silence each year are heavenly. It’s a time to refresh, to allow someone to care for me. Laundry and meals are someone else’s job this one week of the year. There are no chores on my plate and no demands. There is nowhere I need to be except in the arms of the Father for 8 glorious days. The silent aspect of the retreat is the icing on the cake. My thoughts are not interrupted by conversation. In fact, the only conversation I have is with God. This time is so pure! It’s amazing how your mindset can shift when you remove yourself from the distracted state that is likely your day to day norm. On a silent retreat, I consume no social media. if you’ve ever given that up for a time, you realize just how powerful the effects of social media can be…and not necessarily powerful in a life-giving way.

When all of the distractions have been removed, I’m free to see how God is working in all things within and around me. I particularly enjoy contemplating how God is speaking to me in dreams and in nature. It’s amazing to recreate a spirit of awe and wonder for the natural world that is so easy to overlook in our day to day rushing around. There’s time and brain space to appreciate a beautiful sunrise or the sound of an afternoon thunderstorm. Leisurely meditative walks put me back in touch with the created world in all of its beauty. i become curious again about the varieties of trees. I photograph all of the different leaf shapes and plan to identify them at some point in my future. I marvel at the magnolia tree and how majestic it looks even after its flower has bloomed and the leaves begin to fall away. I’m simply in awe of the incredible detail and artistry.

There is something about the natural world that gives me perspective. All of the glory is God’s and there’s no question about that. This magnolia did not have to do one single thing to enhance its beauty, or to even come into bloom in the first place. This was all God. What if each individual person could experience this lesson in this way? To parallel, none of us can take credit for our life, or our successes. What if we understood that God was working all along to bring us to this place of beauty? He was working when we weren’t making progress and it felt like the dead of winter when everything is dormant. I have learned that we will bear fruit in His time and according to His will. This is actually quite freeing to realize we were never in charge in the first place and the only thing we can take credit for is our sin. God has done every good thing for us in our lives. On that note, I’ve experienced on these retreats how God is using all things for good for those who love him. New light has been shed on the difficult circumstances and trials in my life. I’ve learned to welcome the really hard stuff, trusting that God is using that to purify and refine. If I really open my eyes, I can learn to use the challenging moments like pain and frustration brought on by other people. I no longer resent these feelings. I embrace them with gratitude and offer the discomfort for the very souls connected to my feelings of pain and frustration. Likewise, we can cultivate patient endurance in reparation for our own sin and for the sins of the world. A glimpse of a spiritual government begins to emerge. I begin to see how we all belong to one another and must be praying and sacrificing for each other at every opportunity. This brings me peace. It makes sense of suffering. It inspires me to lay everything down at the foot of the cross and empty myself of the things of this world. God’s peace begins to consume all that is not His and the warm embrace that enfolds me is like no other. This is restoration. This is the point of cultivating the practice of an annual silent retreat..