This Week

This past week I went on a personal retreat. I spent a few days in a cottage at Beulah Beach Camp on Lake Erie. I love being near the water but didn't actually spend any time on the beach. I mainly stayed inside and read and journaled, and of course did some art.

I made a small journal out of watercolor paper for the retreat as a way to practice what I am learning from Valerie Sjodin. Learning to shape the edges and embellish and paint them. The start of my journal:

The quote reads, "In the broadest sense of the word, contemplation means creating sacred space to be still, to rest in God, to reflect, to look inward, to attend to the inner life, and simply to be with God in solitude, silence, and stillness. Solitude, silence and stillness are in fact the qualities of contemplative prayer...a lifestyle of contemplation fosters personal and communal transformation." Phileena Heuertz.

My intention for this retreat was to take some time to process the information from the conference I attended last month. What I learned was that I already do a pretty good job of engaging in reflection on my down-day. I had an expectation going into the retreat that my time would be different because I was away from home...and that did happen in the early years when I first started taking retreats. But now I find that the practices I have established for down-time and being intentional with spiritual practices such as journaling and reflection are providing "retreat-like" time on a regular basis. Taking small amounts of time and a longer amount on my Friday down-day is helping me pay attention to my heart. It was a good discovery and will help me continue to stay focused on the spiritual practices that feed my soul, and will help me continue to be diligent about protecting my "white space" on Fridays.

Over the past few weeks I have enjoyed making some painted and collaged background pages for my journals. This continues to be such a therapeutic activity for me!

And added a few art journal pages to an altered book art journal

The last page is the prayer we used at the start of each of our small group sessions at the conference. It was a good way to slow down, listen and focus on God.

This one graduated from Kindergarten yesterday. I love being an adopted grandma to these kid!

That was my week. How was yours?