It was about 9:00 at night, at the end of a long, full day. We had started the morning in a prayer garden, listening to words of inspiration from David Whyte and Mary Oliver and the Prophet Isaiah. We had dined on salad and casseroles and blueberry bread pudding that made us smile from the inside out. The retreat was an opportunity to experience creative and spiritual formation together through writing, and our group had made the decision to trust the process.

All day, we chose vulnerability.  The Spirit connected us and made community among people who had been friends for 20 years and people that had just met at breakfast. 

At 8:30 we wrapped up in our meeting space and followed a path toward the gift of live music. We walked through the woods, accepting the invitation not to turn on our flashlights and learned that night vision was real!

As we listened to the music of Endless Field, writing in the dim light, letting the words flow out of our hands onto the paper, there was a sense of expectancy in the space.  Still, it was the unexpected that happened. Words, poetic prose, drumbeats and a song with words, verses and a bridge that came from two different people and landed together in a way that felt holy. All of it filled our spirits with faith and hope and love.

I want to remember these days. They filled me up, and reminded me of the power of words to heal our souls. I want to remember that the people in the picture have been together for a day and feel like they’ve been friends since the beginning of time. I want to remember the night I really felt like I could see in the dark. I want to remember these days when everything came together. 

(To learn more about opportunities to write together, contact me at debbie@connect.faith. And click here to hear Endless Field )