“Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

Have you ever gone to a retreat? I bet you have, and maybe it inspired you. My first experience with one happened in High School, and it was memorable, but not in a good way. My mother decided I should attend a retreat with a youth group from our small-town church. I wasn’t in the group, and since I hated church, I wanted no part of the deal.

The group raised money for the retreat by washing cars. I reluctantly helped, even though I had no plans to attend the event. But my mom thought otherwise. Then, something tragic and horrible happened. I was a teenager, so everything that wasn’t wonderful felt tragic and horrible. Every kid from my church opted out of the weekend except for one boy much younger than me. I still had to go—alone. I hitched a ride with some teens from another church located in a big city. They intimidated me immediately with cool talk of happenings beyond my pay grade, and they befouled me with their stinky cigarette contraband. Even so, I would have been happy to bunk with any one of them. But that didn’t happen.

My assigned room left me utterly alone without the welcome presence of crickets chirping. My room sat mutely inside an expansive dormitory floor with dim hallways reminiscent of midnight in a lonely hospital. I had no roommate nor adult supervision, and no one else checked in to my floor. Yes, you heard me correctly. I remained alone on the whole bleeping floor unless you count spiders. It was a nightmare! It was also eerie, as if a zombie apocalypse had scrubbed every living soul from the wing of rooms. At least I had privacy in the communal showers.

The first thing I did upon arrival was find the big city girls on another floor that bustled with laughter and voices. But they spurned me and my lonely predicament. I returned to my private wing. Needless to say, I’m only halfheartedly ashamed to say I ditched the scheduled events and spent all my time at a nearby mall. I didn’t even eat at the cafeteria, instead opting for pizza at Rocky Rococos. I’m sure my mother never heard the end of it.

I’m on a writing retreat in Colorado with Ted Talking and award-winning author Jess Lourey! What will happen this time? I’ll keep you posted.

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Treat yourself to a sweet reading retreat ~ books!

See you next week!