I started the new year heading back to Raleigh, negative Covid test in hand, to get ready for the first retreat of the year. I hadn’t seen my friends since our Christmas party, but I didn’t realize how much I had missed them until I saw them. Joy welled up inside of me and any doubts about coming back went away. We packed up into our cars and headed back to Lake Gaston for the retreat.
The retreat is called “Career, Calling, Vocation.” Over break each of us had to take a few assessments for this retreat. Our teacher, Bruce, went through these assessments with us, helping figure out things were good and bad at and ways to work on both. The one-on-one time that I had with Bruce gave me a lot to think about, to help me with my journey of being who the Lord desires me to be even more.
About half-way through the retreat however, Covid struck. Taking all the precautions and following guidelines, half of us left to quarantine and the other half stayed to quarantine at the lake house. We finished the rest of the retreat over Zoom and after that me, along with seven others watched all of Harry Potter for the rest of the week. Quarantine at the lake was actually a blessing, it was time to spend with each other and be lazy with each other. When quarantine ended, I was ready to go. I wanted to start to put into practice what I had learned over the retreat.
So here a month later and I still reflect on the time at the lake house and the conversation I had with Bruce. I’m still figuring out a lot of what we went over and how to apply it and it’s been a slow and hard process so far, but it’s been fulfilling as well. Thank you, Jesus, for these friends and for all lessons I’ve learned in 2022 so far.
-Dyl