It's fun to drive with a bag of tambourines and maracas in your car. Every speed bump is a fiesta!
The bottle of wine came out Saturday night when we were making banana boats in the fireplace, so I didn't have to pair it with a Zone bar. I also need to bring more wine next year, since that bottle went fast.
If you're charging up the digital camera before you leave on retreat, check to see that the other end of the charger cord is plugged into an actual wall. It works better that way, and will not leave you looking confused as you try to turn on a camera with a dead, uncharged battery.
People who don't walk uphill and downhill on a regular basis, but still choose to take long hikes while on retreat should not expect their legs to be happy about this. My calf muscles seized right up last night and I'm still walking like a toddler, sort of tilting from side to side.
The labyrinth we walked at the retreat was the Prayer Path version. I have to admit to being a bit skeptical going in, just because I'm a fan of the Chartres-style labyrinth at Grace Cathedral, and I've been to labyrinth retreats there, and I've driven up to Grace for a quick spin around the labyrinth on more than one occasion when my mind just wouldn't shut up. So I have big giant biases.
The Prayer Path seemed like it had vast potential to be hokey or trite. It has little "stations" set up at points along the path where you do a symbolic thingy or look at images, and you either read a booklet as you walk through or else listen to someone who sounds like Elizabeth Hurley read to you on a walkman over a background of new age music.
So, yeah, the Prayer Path was better than I expected. Part of that has to do with the fact that I slipped in the room where it was set up late at night and walked it by candlelight, by myself, with the headphones on, and I'm sure part of it is just that I was in a really receptive state. There's a station that's much like the seashell confession we use at the children's service, only with rocks. You name your worries and your fears, put them on the stone, and drop them into a bucket of water, giving them to God. Ok, who had to keep backing up the CD because she couldn't drop the stupid rock? That would be me. Thank you. I did a little better with that one the second night. Sort of. Not especially.
There's some talk of getting the kit and building one at St. Ned's, which may or may not happen. I still like the Chartres one better, but I think the Prayer Path is more accessible to most people, since it comes with nice instructions. People like instructions.
This week, I have to do everything that I usually do, twice, since I'll be gone for most of next week and need to have bulletins and such for the Sunday after Thanksgiving ready, and the December newsletter. It doesn't feel horrible and overwhelming, though, which is a nice change.
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