Last Friday and Saturday, I had the joy of speaking at a woman’s retreat near Edenton, NC.
My bedroom overlooked a river which immediately put me in my happy place. Any morning I get to wake up and see water out my window is a good morning, indeed.
The hostess/organizer, her daughter and their helpers did an amazing job of getting together the fabulous array of food and setting festive tables for each of the meals we shared. I am always impressed by people who make complicated operations (like feeding twenty women three times in a row) look simple. I could feed twenty people ONE time without much problem, but then I would have to go take a very long nap and everyone would just have to go hungry for the next two meals.
The theme of the weekend was Connect the Dots and so there were polka dots everywhere. Even the malted milk balls M & M’s were chosen for their circular-ness.
This was the door prize table. Happy day!
I spoke three times over the course of the retreat.
Since it was an intimate setting, I invited everyone to chime in with stories, experiences, and questions and we had a grand old time.
You can tell just by looking at these two faces that they were always good for a laugh!
This was the emcee for the weekend; she made it look easy!
I had a chance to get to know this lovely homeschooling mom of three. She sent me the sweetest email of encouragement when I get home; it absolutely made my whole day.
Here she is with another sweet Retreat Friend.
This lovely lady owns the house next door and helped to house some of the wome who attended the retreat. She and I shared with each other some of our stories of tragic haircuts.
It was great seeing younger women at the retreat as well. This beautiful girl in pink is 24 years old and studying to be a nurse.
And THIS lady? This is a dear friend and the pastor’s wife at the church that hosted this event.
Cheryl and I meet for lunch at different times throughout the year and enjoy each others’ company so much. She and her husband have been missionaries to Moscow, Russia and Vilnius, Lithuania and have been pastoring at their current church for twenty years. She writes and performs dramatic monologues, is musical, is a great public speaker and best of all, she understands very well the experiences I go through in my life as a pastor’s wife. I count her as a dear treasure in my life.
As I was leaving on Saturday afternoon, the women presented me with an enormous gift basket with several sweet things that I really wish I didn’t know existed because they are beyond addictive. Yum!
This is one of those addictive items. Oh. My.
I’m so thankful for the privilege I had to hang out in a lovely spot with a group of lovely ladies as I told them my stories and they told me theirs.
Because when it comes right down to it, our life journeys are made up only of stories–story after story strung together from our first breaths to our last. And it’s the stories we tell and the stories we listen to that let us know how much we have in common with our fellow travelers on this journey.
It’s the stories that link our hearts; it’s the stories that connect the dots; it’s the stories that enlighten and encourage and help us to know we are never alone on our journey.
What about you? If you could share one miscellaneous story from your life with the rest of us, what would it be? We love hearing stories here at Smithellaneous.
What a beautiful view to wake up to. I would never have room to be able to do something like that nor do I have the view to offer but I would love the challenge of doing the cooking. 🙂
Mel,
If you are up to the challenge of cooking, my hat is off to you! I would be entirely overwhelme at the very thought of it.
Looks fun and pretty too. Glad you got to encourage and be encouraged, a blessing both ways. Ruth
Ruth,
Yes, it WAS a blessing both ways–that’s a good way to put it.
You would have loved the water and trees and serenity. There’s something about nature that always makes everything seem okay again.
What a lovely place – the room, the water, the sun – really makes for a wonderful start of the day. How wonderful that you were able to share your story with these ladies and know they were uplifted and blessed. Since I am a PK I would have a few stories from my youth, but have a story on one of my granddaughters. She was about 3 years old and staying over one evening. The next day we went grocery shopping. She grabbed her small cart and I had mine. As we went down one aisle, she picked up something and asked if it was on my list, I told her I was sorry but it was not. Went down the next aisle and the same question was put to me and I had to give her the same answer. (These items, of course, were not grocery items, but candy and other child-like things). Going down the 3rd aisle another woman was shopping. Again, she asked me if an item was on my list and after I gave her my answer she replied, “Well, it’s on my list grandma.” I, along with the other woman burst out laughing. Told her, since it was on her list, she’d better get it. I wasn’t being cruel, but would have gotten her something later on. That little girl is 24 and manages 2 hair salons.
Sharyn,
Love that story! That girl obviously knew her mind at a young age, a fact which is made even MORE obvious since she is managing salons at such a relatively youthful age.
I know you have many more wonderful memories with her. Priceless!
What a beautiful place for a retreat! The water looked so peaceful and calm and I really really loved the bedroom!
Kari,
Yes, I wish could have stayed at week and just stared quietly at the river. Such serenity!
What a beautiful place to retreat to, it looks like a wonderful weekend. Hmmm, a miscellaneous story for Smithellaneous readers….I can’t think of anything very interesting. As I tick through the usual suspects, such as parenting, working as a nurse, disability issues, I guess -today- I come back to my days of student nursing.
i remember my very first patient, it was 1980. I had never been in a patient’s hospital room before, never mind interacted with a ‘patient’. Ever. I was the newbie of newbies, 18 years old, it was my freshman year. I had no clue. Sure, at that point we had had some classroom instruction on how to make beds and give injections(into oranges), practiced conversations where one ‘reflects back’ to the patient the feelings he is expressing, but to face an honest to goodness ‘sick’ person in the hospital setting was just a little alarming for me.
So, I was given my ‘assignment’ that morning, an older man with terminal prostate cancer. As per the process, I was given the list of meds he was on and his other diagnoses. The list was long and exhaustive. I focused on the details, trying to connect dots and make sense of the medical condition of this man. It was a bit overwhelming reading all the medical jargon. I was to make his bed, help him wash and get changed. I was to converse with him, engage with him in an open ended way. Okie dokie.
So, in I went, wearing my white student uniform and carrying his fresh linen. Ready to tackle the
medical ‘situation’ before me. And there he was, quietly folded in a chair next to his bed, facing the window, looking out. I introduced myself and could immediately see he was not going to converse. At all. I looked out the window to see what he was looking at and there was only a grey hospital rooftop visible. From my reading I knew he was here to die. That this was it. The end of his life. And all he had to look at was the top of a roof until that day came. No family, no nobody. I found that so incredibly sad. So so sad. That his entire life had come down to this, a grey roof. I did what I had to do, changed his linen, helped him wash up etc but he was shut down. I wondered what he was thinking, how he was feeling and walked out of there with such sadness for him.
It was my first step toward learning that nursing was so much more than the medical stuff on paper that I was busy studyong and that if I was going to be able to help my patients, I had to learn to separate myself from their issues and not drown in them.
To get more involved in the human side of nursing required less involvement of my own personal feelings. Many many years went into perfecting that balance.
Lesley,
What a perfect (and sad) analogy for the end of that man’s life, to be staring at a flat gray roof.
The gray color no doubt suited his mood and his outlook perfectly; a flat yellow roof would have been very weird but gray? Perfect.
The fact that he was staring at a roof at all seems signficant to me because roofs cover people and events that are vibrant and brimming with life. He couldn’t see them and would never see them again but as he stared, he could no doubt visualize the memories of when he himself used to be busy and vibrant under other roofs in other places.
And for you, a brave 18-year girl, to walk in and have to try and figure out how to act, what to say, what to do in light of his averarching hopelessness? No wonder you still remember that incident all these years later. Truly life altering.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write it out. Very moving.
Your view was much better than mine last week. I was in New Orleans for three days. It has to be one of the dirtiest places on earth. Even the food at the dinners we were at wasn’t the greatest and usually New Orleans food is delicious. The one bright spot was a beignet at Cafe du Monde! Well, maybe it was two.
Phyllis,
A beignet (or two) is certain to brighten the dreariest day!
Here is a story from my past that I think had an impact on how I view myself and my place in this world…
I was born in 1960 with hip dysplasia which is a condition that is now checked for in newborns but back then was not. This condition can be pretty readily corrected now without surgery, however, when I was a child, the cure was unknown so I underwent several procedures and surgeries. My parents were told I would probably never walk. My immigrant, uneducated parents simply refused to take this as the final answer and today I walk (with a limp) but am not limited due to this condition. That’s just the background – here is my story.
I am the oldest of five. When we were growing up in the 60’s, kids played outside, ran around, rode bikes, etc. Due to my hip problem I was wearing braces and unable to ride a bike until I was about 9 years old. This did not stop me, however, from wanting to do what my sisters and brothers were doing so I wanted a bike. My father was a construction worker and was always repairing things, etc. and was pretty handy at rigging things up to do jobs they weren’t originally meant to do. I had a walker that was open at the back but surrounded me around the sides (for stability). My father added small wheels to the bottom of my walker and told me this was my “bike”. I could really get that thing moving all around the neighborhood. What this taught me was that just because I had some limitations that didn’t mean my world had to be limited. I just had to look at alternative ways to accomplish what I needed or wanted. Today I am confident in my abilities to do anything I set my mind to and am usually successful at it. Most people tell me they forget all about my limitations after they get to know me because they don’t define me. My parents instilled a strong sense of confidence in me and showed me time and time again that anything is possible. I am very grateful for that and for them.
Mary
Mary,
What a wonderful story! I think Steve would be fascinated to read this because he’s like your dad in loving to tinker and modify things. Sounds like your dad was a creative, innovative thinker.
I’m glad your parents were not willing to take no for an answer and gently pushed you forward into doing things you weren’t medically supposed to be able to do. It has certainly paid off through all of these wonderful years you have live.
Your story is an inspiration to me today; thank you for sharing it!
Beautiful place. I would not have room for them or been able to fix enough food either. I know it was a wonderful time. God puts special people in our lives.
Ann,
Yes, He truly does put special people in our lives; I’m so thankful for every new relationship I make.
Wow! I would love to wake up to a view like that every day!! 🙂
LeeAnne,
Yes, you and me, both! It was truly spectacular.