Retreats are interesting
It's now afternoon on Monday. I'm still in South Lake Tahoe. In Zephyr cove on the Nevada side. I'm at the presbyterian conference center. This conference is an interesting one. The only mountain retreat I've ever been on are the ones at Hume Lake when I was in High School. So I wasn't fully sure what to expect.
The people are friendly but in a really different kind of way. They don't smile but want to get to know your name. Presbyterian's drink and smoke too and that's something I'm not fully use to. My roomate shared a delicious glass of red wine with me last night. She also shared some dove dark chockies too.
She is planning on becoming an associate pastor and would like to work in the The southwest somewhere. She is half Scotish and Cherokee. So she loves wolves but also love celtic faith. We stayed up talking until almost midnight. She is a great conversationlist and super friendly. She's a camper so she has all of her great camping gear in the room. She even has a native american dream catcher by the window. She said she wanted to burn some sage and cedar that she harvested from the forest but was afraid that the smoke detectors would go off.
Last night we gathered at sunset. Turned off all the lights in the coference center and did a guided meditation. It was Christ based but still a bit off to me. A bit to new age. I kept thinking about the Frank Peretti books and praying the blood of Jesus over me. I've always felt that you have to be careful what channels you open up and who opens them up for you. None the less the sun set was breath taking. The skyline that the moutains created were so beautiful. And the gorgeous sound of the waves crashing were heavenly.
This morning we gathered by the edge of the lake. Everything was already awake. Golden. The water lapis blue. And we sang a song. Not sure what the song was but it was a meditation song. And then we did Tai-Chi for Jesus. They brought up the whole yin/yang thing and I was a little weirded out. The instructor saw my face and said "make it your own". I just couln't. I was pretending to hold a ball in my hands and that contained all my negative energy. Sorry that was just really off for me. Don't believe in the whole yin/yang thing. And I don't need to imagine my negative energy in an invisible ball. We then proceeded to open/greet/and welcome the universe into our being. Um,not me either. I barely welcome my friends into my life. Let alone the universe. I couldn't go there either. Perhaps I'm just shallow but Mexicans dont do that. (wink)
So we proceeded to breakfast. Ahhh good old eggs and bacon. Normalcy. Finally.
Then headed over to our morning chapel. There are a lot of Presbyterian things that I'm not fully aware of. But I'm finding the guy that is speaking tonight to do a lot of the things that Lee does in service so I think it might just be a presbyterian thing. Such as a standing for the reading of the word and some sort of benediction at the end of service. Which I personally think is really cool.
However in the middle of it..we began to do some more tai chi type stuff. Now I'm all about prayer postures but this seems a bit different to me. I remember Rob Bell mentioning that you can find truth in everything that you do. So perhaps that's not such a bad idea to try. I tried it a little bit and I thought it just wasn't for me. Now this is where it gets tricky. Because if I were in San Francisco in CHinatown and a lil asian gmom or gdad approached me to tai chi boogey I certainly would do it. But it's just a big strange to me.
So after this man spoke he said something so profound. That it broke me. I just cried to God. Little sobby tears on the floor in the back of this auditorium on the south shore of Lake Tahoe.
The people are friendly but in a really different kind of way. They don't smile but want to get to know your name. Presbyterian's drink and smoke too and that's something I'm not fully use to. My roomate shared a delicious glass of red wine with me last night. She also shared some dove dark chockies too.
She is planning on becoming an associate pastor and would like to work in the The southwest somewhere. She is half Scotish and Cherokee. So she loves wolves but also love celtic faith. We stayed up talking until almost midnight. She is a great conversationlist and super friendly. She's a camper so she has all of her great camping gear in the room. She even has a native american dream catcher by the window. She said she wanted to burn some sage and cedar that she harvested from the forest but was afraid that the smoke detectors would go off.
Last night we gathered at sunset. Turned off all the lights in the coference center and did a guided meditation. It was Christ based but still a bit off to me. A bit to new age. I kept thinking about the Frank Peretti books and praying the blood of Jesus over me. I've always felt that you have to be careful what channels you open up and who opens them up for you. None the less the sun set was breath taking. The skyline that the moutains created were so beautiful. And the gorgeous sound of the waves crashing were heavenly.
This morning we gathered by the edge of the lake. Everything was already awake. Golden. The water lapis blue. And we sang a song. Not sure what the song was but it was a meditation song. And then we did Tai-Chi for Jesus. They brought up the whole yin/yang thing and I was a little weirded out. The instructor saw my face and said "make it your own". I just couln't. I was pretending to hold a ball in my hands and that contained all my negative energy. Sorry that was just really off for me. Don't believe in the whole yin/yang thing. And I don't need to imagine my negative energy in an invisible ball. We then proceeded to open/greet/and welcome the universe into our being. Um,not me either. I barely welcome my friends into my life. Let alone the universe. I couldn't go there either. Perhaps I'm just shallow but Mexicans dont do that. (wink)
So we proceeded to breakfast. Ahhh good old eggs and bacon. Normalcy. Finally.
Then headed over to our morning chapel. There are a lot of Presbyterian things that I'm not fully aware of. But I'm finding the guy that is speaking tonight to do a lot of the things that Lee does in service so I think it might just be a presbyterian thing. Such as a standing for the reading of the word and some sort of benediction at the end of service. Which I personally think is really cool.
However in the middle of it..we began to do some more tai chi type stuff. Now I'm all about prayer postures but this seems a bit different to me. I remember Rob Bell mentioning that you can find truth in everything that you do. So perhaps that's not such a bad idea to try. I tried it a little bit and I thought it just wasn't for me. Now this is where it gets tricky. Because if I were in San Francisco in CHinatown and a lil asian gmom or gdad approached me to tai chi boogey I certainly would do it. But it's just a big strange to me.
So after this man spoke he said something so profound. That it broke me. I just cried to God. Little sobby tears on the floor in the back of this auditorium on the south shore of Lake Tahoe.
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