Recently I was able to get away for a glorious (and gloriously quiet!!) week alone.
[If you don’t know, I have 9 children, ages 19 down to 2 years old, and I’ve been a stay-home, homeschooling mom for the duration of those years.]
For most of my life, getting away like this has been an impossibility, or perhaps I didn’t care enough to figure out how to make it happen. But for the last two summers, I’ve felt a desperation– a need for quiet and time to sort out my soul.
SUMMER 2020
Last year was my first “go” at this. Over the 5 days I was away, I prioritized:
- No internet
- Fasting for several days
- Reading books of the Bible aloud
- Sleeping as much as I could
- Getting out into nature (in the Texas hill country!)
That time was fruitful in many ways. It gave:
- quiet days for reading and prayer
- uninterrupted time to think my own thoughts
- renewed zeal as I came home to my family afterward
THIS SUMMER’S UNEXPECTED LIFE-CHANGE
Earlier this summer, when our plans to buy a family business in Colorado vanished into thin air, we scrambled to come up with a short-term survival plan. Once we got some initial stakes in the ground, it wasn’t long before I told Doug– “I think I’m gonna need some time away alone with enough quiet to process and pray this through.”
When a friend offered her lakehouse, we knew the plan was taking shape!
FIGURING OUT THE CHALLENGES & GOALS
Before going on the retreat, I talked with Doug, and with my counselor, and considered these questions:
- How can I use this time in a way I won’t regret?
- What boundaries do I need to set in order to make sure my week doesn’t get wasted on other tasks/demands?
- What treats/practical elements will make this feel special?
- How can I guard against devices and screens and noise so I give myself the real QUIET I’m longing for?
So these are the things I prioritized, this year:
- Sleep (early to bed, & waking up naturally each day)
- Time in nature
- Reading a book of meaty sermons about joy
- Copying the book of Philippians
Steak!!! LOTS OF IT!- Fasting and praying for my son while he went through a critical point in boot camp
- Listening to a podcast about family, trauma, childhood formation while I was driving (The Place We Find Ourselves