Preparing for the Plunge

For many years I took a four-day silent retreat twice a year.  Recently, I realized that I haven't done one for at least 24 months.  I made that discovery because I was feeling scattered and without clear direction, spiritually exhausted.  I plan to take a Staycation for the week before the Fourth of July, and while I really want to get outdoors and have some fun, I know that I must devote some of that time to looking inward and soul searching.  I decided I will meditate for the first two days.

I believe I started doing these retreats in about 1990, and what I continue to be amazed at is how reliable the Universe is in getting things stirred up as my retreat approaches.  Since we are now a week out, I've had books thrown on my path, events in the news, job prospects that take me in different directions, and even a "flower reading" which was a Christmas gift that finally just occurred yesterday.

"Consider the vastness of possibilities," reader Robin Masiewicz had said at one point.  Funny that she said that because I've increasingly felt boxed in by the possibilities my life seems to hold.  That, you see, is why I need these retreats: they seem to open new and vast possibilities that I miss when sucked into my day-to-day routine.

So, I am being very intentional about embracing all the things on my path that I know will fertilize the meditation process, knowing that vastness is out there somewhere and soon will be in me.