Saturday, July 14, 2007

Dear God,

I felt like purple today. So I drew my purple dance clothing from the drawer and headed for the ocean. My friends, 11 retreatants joined me in our meditative hour at the beach. We scattered, each following your lead, following our own path, seeking living water. I followed your footprints that lead me to the water's edge. And I stood in prayer, open silence allowing you to speak for me, praying my prayer, challenging my own soul to listen, to be attentive to the movement of your spirit. And I danced in purple.

As the "shoppers" joined us a little later, we sat on the sand incline in the sun, perched on old blankets. We gave thanks to you in an open-eyed prayer for our spectacular view, for the quietude except for the waves brushing against the shore, and for our delicious food, the homemade blueberry sour cream coffeecake, fresh fruit salad of oranges, sweet cherries, grapes, bananas, kiwis and pineapple juice. We ate in the round, nearly in silence as we took in the beauty around us. We all cleaned our plates, some of us finishing off seconds.

Then I passed out our sand buckets, not the shovels, just the buckets. I reminded them that God has designed a bucket for each of us. God has invited us to open ourselves so we can empty our buckets any time, making room for you to fill them. Yesterday we dug in the sand with our shovels. We dug for more than 20 minutes then answered reflective questions.

But today's "living water" exercise consisted of "filling". We moved away from the blankets, each going in our own direction in search of God's filling power. When we were ready we returned to the blankets, silent except for the slight sloshing of water in our buckets. We journaled our answers, finding hidden treasure in the exercise. Then we began to share an amazing array of insights, revelations, spirit happenings. We had loaded up on living water, determined, no, committed, to returning home with the gifts of retreat.

As we concluded we were confident of God's presence, knowing full well that our time was God-lead, God-filling. We circled around Dee, our new friend who has courageously opened herself up in order to share in retreat. And we began our trek back to the cars parked along a spacious beauty just over the hill.

I looked at these women, wondrous journeyers of faith. Each one, so beautiful, so full of faith and desire to be close to the Maker of Living Water. I felt blessed by their deep sharing, for their friendship and wit, for their fun loving and friendly spirit. Well women with buckets.

God of all ages,
I am astounded
by your miraculous work
within us.
Your way,
of leading,
inviting us to follow
is beyond our capability.
Yet you wander
into our lives
and fill us with wonder.
What can we say
to show our appreciation,
our gratefulness?
Our hearts are full.
And so are our buckets.

Loving you, Andrea