Monday morning, the last day of the retreat. It is quiet in the chapter room, besides the flipping of pages as we try to find our list of intentions from Friday's session. I have the taste of ginger cookies in my mouth - every day there was some kind of fresh baked treat but today was the first day that I indulged.
The white roses are faded on the altar, but the sunflowers and showy Azalea are still bright and cheerful. I can hear the cooing of quails outside the window as they scratch through the underduff looking for seeds and bugs.
I'm all packed and ready to go. Part of me wishes these were seven-day retreats, another is ready to get back to the Chip and the cats. I’ve put my phone in airplane mode so that I have a smooth transition back to Santa Cruz, and to give myself another couple of hours of silence before being subject to text calls and emails.
Yesterday, after the morning session, I spent a hours painting my rune stone tiles. I chose jewel tones, with gold and copper accents. This was one of my weekend intentions simply to do art. Of course, I wanted to do more, but it was great just to focus on one project for a long time rather than multitasking, being interrupted, or even hearing music, let alone the television.
I also wanted to read, I finished one book and started another but felt too distracted this morning even though I had plenty of time. It was easy not to drink and I definitely had plenty of food. My only complaint was sleeping poorly as it was too hot and I kept being interrupted by the sounds of the fridge.
I walked every day, actually, I hiked every day. The paths are so steep here I fell once on the way back to the trailer. There were tons of little rocks in the path. I didn't have hot water in the trailer and when the maintenance people came I noticed they walked on the other side of the path which was less rocky so I took that route from then on.
My heart leaped with joy when Amber asked for a volunteer to pack up the altar, rather than having us remove our various treasures. I was sure this would be the last retreat, and I’m curious about what time of year we will be coming back in 2024.
Blessed be.
