Retreat

        To retreat is a wonderful thing.  I have found myself so busy over the past few weeks, filling up every evening with cooking new recipes, spending a few hours crafting, skyping with dear friends back home, writing letters and spending time with friends I have connected with here in the Cities.  The weekend of October 20-24th was a much anticipated LVC retreat, in which all 19 of the Twin Cities volunteers drove down to Webster City, Iowa to meet up with the Omaha volunteers for a retreat and continued training.  I think we were all anxious about it a bit, hoping that it wouldn't be a repeat of our very emotionally and intellectually intense orientation week in August!  Instead, we were all pleasantly surprised--we really did spend time in retreat mode.

     We stayed at a corn farm, which seemed fitting for our middle-of-nowhere location in Iowa.  Our time was spent cooking meals for each other, reading, walking around outside enjoying the sunshine, meeting other volunteers and comparing experiences in LVC, singing music in the common room, and attending a few different seminars.  We continued with our anti-racism training, this time doing a closer analysis on our placement organizations--better understanding institutionalized racism.  I learned a lot, and felt much more empowered by the end of the session with Pastor Mike.  We also each took an Enneagram personality test (many of you know how much I enjoy personality tests!!) and spent quite a bit of time with our housemates learning about each others personalities and learning how to better understand one another.  I really think people should do this in every living situation. It is incredible how the community dynamic changes when you take the time to really understand every level of a person!  I feel like I became even more connected to my housemates--hours of conversation, new inside jokes and a weekend of laughter really strengthened our bond as the "Wellstoners."  Not only that, I got to connect more with all of the other volunteers in the Cities and spend time with a few wonderful people from Omaha.  It seems like everywhere I go, I keep meeting incredible people--it makes me confident that no matter where I end up living in life, I will be blessed by new relationships. 

      We also got to present our house covenant to the group.  Every house prepared a creative version of the covenant that represents the written document of what we want our community to commit to in this year together.  This is a painting that my housemates and I made.  Rebecca and Emily helped come up with the idea and the words behind it, Eric sketched the tree and I did the watercolor painting.  It really was a great community effort!  As it hangs on our wall, it is a great reminder to the community that we are trying to foster over the next several months.  We are holding each other accountable to staying committed to a more simple and sustainable lifestyle--putting more energy into relationships than on technology, learning new skills (canning, knitting, sewing, cooking everything by scratch, gardening, composting, biking everywhere, etc) and being very intentional about our consumption habits.  We are committing to staying involved in issues of social justice, remembering that inequality for one is inequality for all.  We are committing to spirituality, supporting one another in growth, and meeting each other where we are at.  We are committing to creating a supportive, fun and deep community that challenges every member to live well.  I have enjoyed taking the time to reflect on such things, as these moments, conversations, and habits are what make my time here so rich and meaningful!