Fall Women's Retreat at Mount Carmel

Quote of the Day:  I know what I am doing. I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. from Jeremiah 29:11 (The Message)

Some of the women who attended the Women's Retreat at Mount Carmel, September 14-16, 2012.

 

Barb, who lead us and lit a candle of hope in each of our hearts.

She gave us the feeling of unconditional love and acceptance for who we are and where we are in our life's journey.

 

 

 

Every fall, Mount Carmel offers a women's retreat on the beautiful shores of Lake Carlos. We're usually a small, intimate group of women who gather for respite, for fellowship, and for nurturing one another in faith and in our life's journey. They come from near and far. Some with heavy burdens, recent losses, difficult diagnoses or decisions for loved ones or themselves. They come for rest and renewal. The song running through my head as we gathered was You have come down to the Lakeshore by Cesareo Gabarain, originally written in Spanish and nicely translated into English. The chorus: Sweet Lord, you have looked into my eyes; kindly smiling, you've called out my name. On the sand I have abandoned my small boat; now with you, I will seek other seas.

Together, we shared our stories and sang our songs. We felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, and left with a new kind of tired and a new kind of energy.  What I love about this retreat is that mothers and daughters come together, friends, sisters, cousins, and people who need time away might come on their own, but leave feeling they are not alone.

 

Mothers and daughters

My cousin Angie and I provided the music. She and I have similar backgrounds, grew up going to Mount Carmel in the summer, and enjoy making music together. Thanks, Angie, for doing the music with me. You made it so fun and gave me such confidence.

Thank you, Barb, for leading us with your gentle and encouraging spirit, filled with love.

Thank you, Mount Carmel, for providing such a lovely setting.

Thank you to all the women who attended. You are bright, shining stars.

Peace,
Mary

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Where would you go for a retreat? Who would you like to go with you? Or, would you prefer to go alone?

Gratitude

Quote of the Day:  I feel grateful to be a woman. Ginny, from our Women's Retreat last weekend.

We were gathered in a circle on Sunday morning for our exit session. We went around and reflected on meaningful moments of the retreat and how we were feeling.  When Ginny said that, I said, "Halleluiah!"  We are most at peace when we embrace who we are, feel whatever we need to feel, and show our love for one another.

I'm feeling grateful for my journey, for my four sons who are a delight and an inspiration.  I love watching and listening to them interact. I smile everytime I hear the twins snap off their reading lights and wish each other a "Good night." I'm happy when my bigger boys hang out together and enjoy each other's company. I'm feeling grateful to be a woman and a mom.

And, for my Friday Favorite Photo: I'm grateful that Leo, the Great White Hunter, came to live with us. He's already left us several gifts from his recent hunting quests. Thanks, Leo, Keep up the good work!

Journaling Prompt:  What are you feeling grateful for today?

Where's God?

Quote of the Day:  Is God on Facebook, yet? Jim Gaffigan

I checked, and I'd say that God is not on facebook. You can "like" God. You can sign up for Messages from God, but I'm not exactly sure who does the typing for those. I've asked my pastor friends several times to share God's email, but they say they don't have it. So, I've come to the conclusion that God doesn't send messages via social networking websites. I was asked this weekend, "How do you hear God's voice?" God speaks to me through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Cousin Angie at the piano, me leading the song, Siri on flute

In Songs

In voices and conversations

In peaceful settings like Mount Carmel

on Lake Carlos

In art

and writing

In the community of women, gathered at a spiritual retreat on the topic of Depression.

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Where do you go to find answers for life's difficult questions and circumstances?  Where do you hear or sense the Holy Spirit?

Slip Slidin' Away

Quote of the Day: from the song River

It's coming on Christmas

They're cutting down trees

They're putting up reindeer

And singing songs of joy and peace

Oh I wish I had a river

I could skate away on

This is what it looks like in Minnesota already.  November is a transition month.  The temps aren't cold enough for just snow, so we get freezing rain.  I left for a weekend women's retreat at Mount Carmel, near Alexandria, MN, when the roads were dry and the sunset so beautiful that it was distracting. I slipped home on icy roads and sang in my head, "I wish I didn't have a river of ice to drive home on." 

The theme of the weekend was Advent and Mary, a time of waiting and anticipation.  It's what I needed to get me in the holiday spirit.  I listened to Christmas music there and back.  I like Sarah McLachlan's Wintersong.  She has a recording of River that is filled with longing.

Once again, I had the opportunity to lead the women in making journals and writing.  We used poetry and the art of Mary for inspiration.  A few women created their own art and poetry.

(Nancy is a preschool teacher.  She's flashing me her "preschool" grin!)

Here's the beginning of my own journal entry while at the retreat.  I titled it Longing: 

My creative spirit longs to soar.

It won't allow its voice to be silenced.

Stories play out in my mind.

Characters have conversations with me.

Even as I push the ideas away,

they reappear during long drives, awakenings in the night,

or while stiring spaghetti sauce.

Once, while I was practicing a difficult piece of music, I hit a high G flat, and the idea for a story hit me so strongly, that I stopped playing and began writing.

Creative Spirit, thank you for filling me up and empowering me to spill out all those words and rhythms,

Into the Beautiful...

Click here for my post on Emily Dickenson's poem As Imperceptibly as Grief and the change of seasons, in nature and in life.  It's one of the poems that I shared at the retreat.  The final line to that poem is "Into the Beautiful." That's where we're heading as the seasons change from fall to winter, into the Holidays, Advent and our time of waiting, getting ready to receive all the gifts and promises of Jesus' birth, and hope for our inspiration to grow.

We're watching and waiting.

Journaling Prompt:  What are your traditions as you prepare for winter, the holidays, the next season of life?

Self Care

Quote of the Day: Be sure to secure your own oxygen mask first, then assist others. Pre-flight safety instructions

In the case of drowning, maintain your own safety and reach, throw, assist while attached to your own life-saving device.

These are important words of survival. What good are you to others if your breathing is impaired or you're over your head, drowning in the sea of life? How can you effectively care for others if your own health is suffering?

Would you ever consider going off by yourself, without your family? You might bring a friend, or you might just need time to take care of yourself. So many women give of themselves so much that they completely neglect their own needs. They wake from much needed sleep to nurse a baby or calm a nightmare. I've helped kids get to school and take care of them in between runs to the bathroom to puke, or while my body is shaking from the chills and fever of the flu. No one else will do it, right? Not really. I could have called a friend. I could have insisted that their dad come get them. I could have said, "I just can't do it." But, a real woman doesn't say that, does she?

When women hear messages like, "Take care of your neighbor," and "Don't live a selfish life," followed by, "You are only truly living when you live for others," they take it to mean that they shouldn't even buy themselves a pair of new socks, much less get a massage, or go off on a weekend by herself. If she were to do any of those "selfish" things, she feels she must earn it, win it in a radio contest or something like that, or sell her own plasma so that the guilt of it all won't ruin the experience. We give our friends and family our time, our health, and our possessions. But, what if what they really needed was a happy, healthy mom (friend, daughter, wife, etc)?  Have you ever considered the message you're sending your daughters or your sons by being totally self-sacrificing?  What could they learn from your self-care and watching you pursue your dreams?

What fills you up? Do you need someone to rub your sore muscles? Would you relax as you soaked your feet and had someone paint your toes? Do you need to eat dinner at a restaurant where they wait on you? And, if you do, don't wipe up your own mess! Coffee with a friend? New socks? Or, do you need a morning of listening to music and sipping hot tea because you're stuffed up from allergies?

Here I am with my cousin Angie, sister Joy, sisterly friend JeMA, and me at a recent women's retreat at Mount Carmel!

The women's retreat from this month, a recent massage and pedicure, and time with a good friend have done much to heal me and fill me with the energy and love I need to care for others.

Journaling Prompt: What's your oxygen mask? Find a way to take care of yourself today and write about it. How do you feel?

When Women Pray

Quote of the Day:  An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break.
--An ancient Chinese belief

Have you ever heard these words? "Where you are right now, is exactly where you are supposed to be."  Whenever I start to feel a bit of anxiety about where I am, whether it's driving somewhere, or at home when I think I should be away, or away when I think I should be at home, I think of this phrase.  If I embrace it, and believe it, I have so much peace.  Furthermore, I find myself accepting the gift of where I am and the other people who have gathered there.

The other people who arrived at the store, or event, or women's weekend also are there for a purpose.  Could it be to meet you?  Do you need to share your stories?  The thing is, you need to be open to receiving their stories, their gifts, their concern for you, and you need to be willing to share what you have to offer.  A sense of community happens quickly when people let down their barriers and really talk to each other, beyond recipes and the weather.  They say what is on their hearts, and they truly listen to each other.

Have you ever sat still and let someone pray over you, offering up grace and love and hope?

There is nothing weird or freaky or uncomfortable in this.  It is truly an act of love.  The touch is gentle, the words encouraging.

It's like sitting still and listening to beautiful music.  My sister sang, Come to Us, Creative Spirit, in her gorgeous soprano voice, accompanied by Kay, the musician I most admire.  When I went up to her after the service, she grabbed my hand with gentle strength and held it for just a bit, and I felt loved and cared for and lifted up.

Open your heart to the music.  Listen to the prayers offered up in your name.  Feel the love behind them.  You're worthy.  You're beautiful.  You have so much to offer this world.

Journaling Prompt:  Write a prayer for someone you love - to whatever high power you believe helps us and guides us - God, Creative Spirit, Holy Spirit, Great Creator, ancient ancestors, those spirits who dwell in and among us.

When Women Giggle

Quote of the Day:  from the song Come to Us, Creative Spirit
Come to us, creative Spirit, in this holy house;
every human talent hallow, hidden skills arouse,
that within your earthly temple, wise and simple may rejoice.

Poet, painter, music-maker, all your treasures bring;
craftsman, actor, graceful dancer, make your offering;
join your hands in celebration:  let creation shout and sing!

JeMA and I led journaling and art at Mount Carmel this weekend for a Women's Retreat.  As the women were gathering at this place, we were gathering pieces of Mount Carmel to embed in our canvases.

First, we reminded the women how fluid and free we were as children in our art.  We were like the Kindergartners who shout, "Yes, I'm a dancer! Yes, I'm a writer!  Yes, I'm an artist!"  Then, they begin singing and dancing and letting their creative spirits soar.  Somewhere along the journey, most people become crystalized in their art.  They might have had "art trauma."  We heard a few stories this weekend of when and where, even what the child-self was wearing on the day, art died.  They might suffer from comparison disorder.  The "I'm not good enough" disease.  Our hope was to help these women release their inner creative spirit.

I started our session by reading The Secret of Saying Thanks by Douglas Wood, a beautiful picture book about all the gifts that God gives us in nature.  I held it up the way your favorite teacher did, and I felt people relax into the poetry of the words, the comfort of a story book. We sang, This Little Light of Mine.  JeMA and I squirted paint on their papers for fingerpainting.  Then, the giggles started.  The smiles spread across glowing cheeks and our handiwork became our journal covers - after they dried and we cut them into the shapes we imagined.

I do believe these ladies are exploring the art of "playing off the page!"

So much of who I am comes to life at these retreats.  I'm in community with loving and welcoming women.  I share the gifts and talents God put in me, and my creative spirit soars.  I took many photos and gathered experiences to share.  This is just your first glimpse.  Come back later this week as we explore a creative path.  It may not always be clear, but it is beautiful.

Journaling Prompt: (that I used this weekend):  What did you do as a child to express your creativity?  What do you do now? And, what would you like to be doing?  Is your creativity in the arts, or cooking, gardening, sewing, planning, organizing, decorating?

Women's Retreat

Quote of the Day:  Come to the fount of creation, where the water of life is flowing free. lyrics from the song by John Ylvisaker

Sunset after a storm at Mount Carmel

At a Weekend for Women, Sept. 17-19, I will be leading journal writing at Mount Carmel Camp near Alexandria, MN.  You can visit their website by clicking on the name, or contact me, if you wish, and I'll connect you.  mary(dot)aalgaard(at)yahoo com.

What happens at a women's retreat?  Besides great food, fun, and fellowship, you have time to tap into your creativity, or just Be.  I have some things to share about journaling, a few prompts, and we'll have time to write and create.  My friend, JeMA, will teach art, using nature and texture, and re-awakening our creative spirits.

You also have the option for massage, spiritual direction, walks, time to enjoy the lake, meet new people, or even take a nap.

Last year, I attended two of these retreats, lead some journaling, and enjoyed the beautiful women who were there.  Mothers & daughters, sisters, cousins, aunts, friends, and singles arrived to find rest and nurturing by the still waters.

Last year, I sat next to this lovely woman and her sister for dinner on Fri. night.  Turns out, she raised four children, taught piano lessons, and was a church musician.  What a great connection!  I enjoyed helping with the journaling and teaching the women how to make their own journals.  I had a cabin to myself along the water's edge.  The weather was lovely for September.  I fell asleep to the lapping of the water along the shore and felt peace.

Come away with me, if you can, or find a retreat for yourself wherever you live.  Women need to nurture their creativity and tend to their own needs.  Give yourself a little time-off.

Journaling Prompt: Write about a retreat experience that you've taken, or one that you dream of taking.