November Goodness

St. Nektarios with V. and her friend, Little P. (she drew this during church last night)

So I haven't posted for the past five days. Eek! So much for a seamless, successful month full of blog posts. Man, I was on a roll there, too!

You see, I was at my parish's annual women's retreat this past weekend. I'm so glad I went! The discussion topic was "Planting Seeds of Stillness". I think as women, it's easy to get really, really busy. I, for one, have spent-- no-- WASTED a lot of time daydreaming about a carefree life, with minimal responsibilites and few obligations outside of my own family. And to tell the truth, I was sort of hoping/ expecting the retreat discussion to head in that direction. You know the classic topics (we've all heard them): "Make time for YOU." "Pamper Yourself" "Indulge-- Go for it!" "Put yourself FIRST."

Surprisingly, though, the retreat was all based on the Jesus prayer, and drawing closer to God via prayer. The result? Inner stillness, and True Peace. Father T. (who was our speaker) pointed out just a few of the many saints who lead active lives. Think St. Basil, and even the saint for today, St. Nektarios. These are just two examples of the many saints who lived extremely busy lives, and yet-- they weren't consumed by it. All because they guarded their thoughts and maintained a prayerful heart and mind. It did not grant them external peace, necessarily. But it did grant them internal peace, and the strength to dedicate their lives in a way that bore much fruit. This example really caused me to evaluate my own spiritual life. Do I live in the present? Or do I dwell on the past and alternately daydream/ agonize over the future?

The Kingdom of God is within! Oh, how I forget that EVERY SINGLE DAY. It is absolutely mind-blowing though. If only I gladly and freely occupied my mind and heart with focused prayer-- what an incredible gift I (we!) have, to be able to communicate with God, and yet I keep attempting to "figure things out myself" and lean on my own understanding, to worry, to distract and entertain myself instead.

I don't have any pictures of the retreat center we were at, but it was so beautiful and so peaceful there! I really enjoyed having opportunities to talk to friends, and also to meet and chat at length with people who traveled from out of town who I hadn't met before. (Mimi! I missed you!!)