Adventures at Mom Camp

**Long and rambly**

Last weekend I did something totally outside my comfort zone and while it started off pretty rocky, it wound up being okay.
Backing up a bit... a few weeks ago I got a text from a friend (A) inviting me to join her and another friend (L) for a women's retreat weekend at Camp Berea up in Hebron, NH.  This seemed to be perhaps a providential invitation as I'd just recently mentioned to both Steve and L that I was feeling somewhat that I needed a 'camp' experience like the kids enjoyed over the summer to hear from Jesus more clearly.  Steve agreed that I should go, so I signed up and we waited.
The week prior I offered to drive for carpooling - mostly because I like to drive when I go places with other people (other than Steve).  It worked well for both friends because of various family car issues happening at both homes.  It would turn out that God would show how He had a hand in that little decision.
On the designated Friday, we loaded up the car - after Jess helped me get everything to fit in my bags and Ben carried all the luggage for me.   Then I set off to pick up L first before heading over to get A.  At L's we loaded her stuff into the car and after many tears from her youngest child, we set off for the 20 minute drive to A's house.  On the way we talked about how odd it felt to be leaving our families like this and that it somehow seemed 'wrong' to both of us.
At A's, she happily climbed into the backseat after her family helped load things up, and then we were off with a drive of 1.5 hours ahead of us.  We chatted as we drove with both L and I sharing with A our hesitancy about this weekend away and A sharing how she was really in need of this time away.
None of us had ever been to Berea for a women's retreat before this, though I did participate in a week of summer camp there when I was about 8-9 I think.  We arrived with many, many other women at the camp shortly before 5:30 and checked in, got our bags into our assigned cabin and made our way to the dining hall for dinner.
At this point I was already feeling pretty close to completely overwhelmed.  I'd never been to something like this before and had no idea what to expect or what would happen. There were well over 200 women there, we were sharing a double room space with 9 other ladies that we didn't know but who all knew one another.  Dinner was a buffet that was bountiful but by the time we got our food and found a place to sit most of it was cold and unappetizing.  There was a salad bar and chocolate cake - so not a total loss.

After dinner we were supposed to head up to the gym for our first session of the weekend.  On the way up I found a staff person and asked if he could please turn the heat on in our room as it was already really pretty cold and temperatures were supposed to be in the low 30's overnight.
The worship band was Alanna Story and they were very talented and I enjoyed them.  The main speaker for the weekend was Jodi Greenstreet of CrossTrainer's Ministry from Canada.  She was incredibly high energy and obviously very excited about the weekend.
Just before she began to speak, I was suddenly overwhelmed with anxiety and had to leave the gym.  I phoned Steve and paced outside the gym crying while talking with him that I wanted to come home, that this wasn't for me and he tried to talk me off the ledge and calm me down.  He reminded me that I wasn't alone, that L & A were there with me, that I hadn't given it a chance yet, that I'd be fine!  L came out at one point to check on me and grasped my arms whispering "You can't leave me here!"  After I'd calmed down and pulled myself together, I told Steve I'd give it a chance and that I really couldn't leave because I was the driver and I couldn't strand my friends.  There were some jokes made about how someone should have brought a bottle of wine.  After the session was over - and I'd had no more anxiety attacks - I called Steve and told him I'd survived and I'd talk to him tomorrow.  We went to the bookstore and bought travel mugs for coffee and then went and had a snack in the dining hall before bedtime.
I didn't sleep much, it was well after midnight before I was able to fall asleep at all and then I was up every hour checking the clock and praying that God would speed up time so I could go home.  This was definitely not fun and I was not hearing from God or enjoying myself at all.
In the morning one of the options was a guided prayer hike at 7am, we opted to grab coffee in our travel mugs and go get some exercise and spend some time with the Lord.  There was a woman who led the group - maybe 25 of us - up a short hill and along a short ridge line above the camp with several stops to focus on different aspects of prayer.  As I walked I wrestled with God in prayer.  I spent time confessing to God my bad attitude, that I didn't want to be there, then thanking Him for the beauty of the woods and the weather and all the blessings in my life, and confessing more about how disappointed and angry I've been feeling with our current church experience.  After our 45 minutes in the woods it was time to head to breakfast and then to our first session.  Fresh coffee helped to fend off another anxiety attack and I didn't bolt this time though I felt the bad attitude simmering just below the surface.

After our morning session the 3 of us went for a short walk for exercise then we all went to lunch and the afternoon stretched before us with options for seminars or nothingness as we chose.  For most of the afternoon we opted to just hang out in the room and do nothing much at all.  I had brought some hand sewing to work on, so we just sat and chatted and rested.  I had been texting with Jess and she was teasing me about wanting to come home.  Her sense of humor helps a lot in tense times for me.
Finally it was dinner time and it was a themed dinner with costumes, etc.  The 3 of us opted to not participate in the dress-up, but it was interesting to see how all-out some of the ladies had gone to be 'by the sea' for the evening.  Dinner was actually really good and we all enjoyed it, then there was a comedienne that provided entertainment before our evening session.  She was really funny and we laughed and laughed.
I talked to Jess briefly on the phone before the evening session and she encouraged me to "learn something about Jesus" with her usual dose of humor for her home-sick mama.  Then it was time for worship band to begin.  The music started and we all stood and sang a few songs and then they asked us to sit down.  One of the women began to speak - I'm not even sure all that she said only I could feel my heart beginning to crack.  Then they began to sing a song they'd written.

All around me women began to cry and A began to softly sob beside me.  I sat in my chair wrestling with my pride, fighting my heart.  At last I let go and fell to my knees in prayer and tears.  It was one of the few times in my life where I felt myself fall into God in all the raw emotion and need for His touch on my heart & soul.  The tears fell hot from my eyes as I sobbed and prayed.  At last I was able to quiet and sit back into my chair.  After a few more songs, Jodi came to speak and I heard the story of Peter & Jesus in a fresh way and found myself relaxing and relating as she taught about some of the ways Peter had failed and tried again, over and over.
After the session, A went straight to bed and L and I went for snack and then a walk around camp in the mild weather.  Again it was well after midnight before sleep would come, but at least this time I felt calmer and was able to snatch about 2 hours at a time between wakeful fits.  I was up early and we were packed and ready to go before breakfast.  The 3 of us grabbed coffee and sat by the water waiting for breakfast. We ate and then loaded all our things into the car before our final session.

The morning opened with communion and song.  It was beautiful and an awesome experience.  Probably one of the best times of communion I've enjoyed in many years.  I felt close to Jesus and open to hearing Him speak through scripture as Jodi shared her last message with us.  It wasn't earth shattering, I didn't hear voices from Heaven or anything.  Just honesty from the scripture about how we meet Jesus in our present moment, not counting on anything more than this moment and not holding or comparing to anything or anyone else from prior moments.  An excellent reminder and a push to engage in the present in new ways with fresh eyes and open hands.
As we drove home we shared and talked, laughed and cried a bit.  It was a good time of growing our friendship and I was able to honestly thank A for inviting me to go.
I had written Steve an email on Saturday telling him what I think sums up the experience. I'd wanted to come to a women's retreat because so many people I know have gone at different times and raved about the experience.  I felt that I needed to see for myself so I'd know if I was really missing some deep spiritual experience with Jesus that could only happen away from my family and my normal life.  Turns out that the answer to that is - for me - no.
I did encounter Jesus of course, but I encounter Jesus every day and even every moment if I'm paying attention enough.  The experience taught me that I really hate being away from my family.  I don't like crowds, I'm not comfortable with strangers and I really prefer to sleep in my own bed and eat what I choose.  Time with my friends is really wonderful and I hope we can find ways to get together more often at home.
In looking back at the weekend, I can mostly say that I'm glad I had the experience, but I won't do it again.  If I could have escaped on Friday night, I'd have done it in a blink and this is where it was proved that God uses things we don't expect.  I was trapped by my sense of responsibility to my friends because I drove and was forced to walk a weekend road I'd much rather not walk.  But God doesn't waste any experience in our lives and I suppose in hind-sight the time away brought me to my knees over some hurts and anger I've been holding onto and God was able to work those out of me.  For His forgiveness and grace I am always thankful.

Many thanks to A and L for their amazing patience and gracious kindness during my anxiety attacks and dramatic fits.

Blessings on the journey~

Chapter 6 - Lines

Chapter 6 The Art of Reading People: Empathy

p 108  Researcher Daniel Stern calls the ability to read and respond well to someone's heart attunement. Relationally intelligent people are geniuses at it.

p 108 One dangerous aspect of this skill is that, generally, people who don't read others well aren't aware that they don't.  It is like being emotionally tone-deaf.

p 109 The good news is that relational intelligence can be learned. Develop this skill, get it right, an you will have opportunities to influence, comfort, challenge, and love people on a regular basis.

p 112  The New Testament writer James says, in one of the most often violated commands in all scripture, that everyone should be "quick to listen, slow to speak." Listening, writes Daniel Goleman, is the single most important relational skill a person can develop.

p 113  It is no accident that we speak of paying attention to people, attention is the most valuable currency we have.

p 113 ...one hunger is universal. You have never met a person who doesn't long for more joy. WH Auden wrote, "Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh."

p 115  A friend of mine says that one of the hardest things in the world is to be right and not hurt anybody with it.   (OOOOOOHHHH)

p 116  It's an amazing truth: Being fully right rarely brings as much life to people as simply being human.
People are hungry for joy bringers.

p 117  If you are part of a family, friendship, club, organization, department, small group, or church, you are part of what Daniel Goleman calls an "emotional economy".  Every single interaction we have with another person involves not simply exchanging information or performing tasks but also influencing each other's moods and attitudes.  The emotional economy is "the sum total of exchanges of feeling among us."

p 121  Deep in the heart of everyone you work with, play with, live with, is a sign, if only you will take the time to read it: "Inspire me. Challenge me to grow and then celebrate with me when I stretch. Help me shoulder whatever burden life throws my way."

p 123-124  You are a guardian of the human spirit.  You have the power to manipulate and coerce if you want to. You can avoid and ignore if you choose. But you can also ennoble and inspire. You can lift up and appeal to all that is good and honorable and holy. You can remind fallible and finite people around you that they hold their lives and calling as a sacred trust, that their best efforts matter, that their worst failures will one day be redeemed.
This is all because of the Crucified One who shouldered the burden of the whole human race, who rose again, will come back one day to honor all that is good and set right all that has gone wrong.

Chapter 5 - Lines

Chapter 5  Put Down Your Stones: Acceptance

p 89  You and I were made to be in the life-saving business. Mostly the life lines we have to offer are words.  Every word we speak has the power either to give a little life to people or to destroy a little bit of their spirit and vitality.

p 94  We are most scandalized by sins of the flesh.  Jesus was most scandalized by sins of the spirit.

p 99  Condemnation and judgement have become so deeply rooted in the human spirit that most of us can't imagine having to function without them.

p 101  People need more than toleration.  Bertrand Russell wrote, "A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relationships. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation."   (OUCH!)

p 101 Acceptance is an act of the heart. To accept someone is to affirm to them that you think it's a very good thing they are alive.

p 102  This is very important: acceptance is NOT the same thing as tolerating any behavior one chooses to indulge in. (emphasis mine) Accepting another human being does not mean we refuse to confront or challenge that in them which could harm others and damage their soul.
Failure to confront, to speak the truth in love, can ultimately be as fatal to community as judgementalism.

Chapter 4 - Lines

Part 2 - How to get close without getting hurt
Chapter 4 Unveiled Faces: Authenticity

p 69  The decision to sin always includes the thought that I cannot really trust God to watch out for my well-being.

p 72  [In the Fall] The man and the woman decide there is something they want more than community with God. They do not trust Him. They disobey. - sin always kills relationship.

p 74  To know and be known - which had always been the greatest joy of the human race - now becomes the greatest fear of the human race.

p78 Since we have the assurance of God's love no matter what, we can do a very bold thing.  We don't have to pretend to be more radiant than we really are.  We can live with "unveiled faces". (reference to Moses)

p 80  The irony of the masks is that although we wear them to make other people think well of us, they are drawn to us only when we take them off.

Self-disclosure has enormous power.

p 81  Jesus lived a common life.  He let his friends see him in unveiled moments of joy, sadness, anger and fatigue.

p 83  Sin causes us to seek hiddenness and separation, which in turn destroy community.  In confession, we enter back into community.  We come out of hiding. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "If a Christian is in the fellowship of confession with a brother, he will never be alone again, any where."

p 86  In real life we live in a fallen world. We all fall, we fall often, and sometimes hard.  If we try to handle our fallenness on our own, if we try to keep it secret, eventually it will destroy us.  God has made a better way. He has formed a community in which people can live with unveiled faces. It really is possible to do life without hiding. All it takes is trust.

**this last point is so HARD!  Trust is hard, and living unveiled is hard.  Especially when or if you feel that you are one of very few doing so or if others around you seem uninterested, unwilling, or simply too busy to bother with another person... even a fellow Jesus follower.

Chapter 3 - Lines

Chapter 3: The Fellowship of the Mat: True Friendship

p 46  Psychologist Alan McGinnis notes that rule number one for entering into deep friendships sounds deceptively simple: Assign top priority to your relationships.

p 46  If you think you can fit deep community into the cracks of an overloaded schedule - think again. Wise people do not try to microwave friendship, parenting, or marriage.

p 48 Jean Vanier writes, There is no ideal community. Community is made up of people with all their richness, but also with their weakness and poverty, of people who accept and forgive each other, who are vulnerable with each other. Humility and trust are more at the foundation of community than perfection.

p 52 There is a world of difference between being friendly to someone because they're useful to you and being someone's friend.

p 55  Do you have any idea what the faith of one person can do for a friend?

p 57  Paul Waddell writes, "In spiritual friendship, the principal good is a mutual love for Christ and a desire to grow together in Christ. This is what distinguishes spiritual friendships from other relationships."

p 59  Dallas Willard ~ "To understand Jesus' teachings, we must realize that deep in our orientations of our spirit we cannot have one posture toward God and a different one toward other people."

p 61  There is no gift like the gift of community.

Stalled

I'm finding myself stalled at the moment.  Life is moving along of course... the kids are busy with many things, I'm reading some, cooking some, puttering around and sewing a bit.  But there is this feeling of hanging in limbo and a vague sense of frustration and weariness that is lingering emotionally/spiritually.
 
In less than a week my youngest child will be 15 years old, and the following week we will begin our new school year. I believe it is our 12th year of schooling, officially senior year for my beautiful daughter.  How is all this even possible?  There is no panic though. My software is ready for the new year, just about all the books have been purchased and are ready.  Lesson plans are mostly put in place.

Steve is on vacation next week and we hope to have some fun as a family with day trips, etc.  We are discussing college ideas, gap year ideas and some possible travel plans.  We are on the brink of so much once again and yet I don't feel stressed or overwhelmed with any of it - which is its own sort of strange.  

Perhaps stalled is a good place sometimes.

Blessings on the journey~

Biggest Project Yet - The finale

Part One and Part Two.  ***Photo heavy***

Here is the big reveal!

So now we were ready for finishing touches and furniture!

Instant fun... just add teens! They are enjoying their space immensely and I am so amazed at the transformation!  I'm also once again so amazingly blessed that my husband sacrificed so much time and effort to create a beautiful, inviting, comfortable space for our kids and their friends.

Now if he can only get around to that shed....

Blessings on the journey~