This past month, our class went to a facility called St. Francis for our silent retreat. I had been looking forward to this retreat for a while. Being able to sit in silence and have my thoughts to myself is something that I really enjoy. What made this retreat even more special was that I had just had my 360 reviews from my classmates. I had a really great opportunity to look at how my friends saw me: the strengths and areas of growth and also use materials that we had been given from our retreat in the beginning of the year.
My time alone was great for me to think about myself and how the Lord has been working my life over the last few months that I have been a fellow. I think that there were a lot of really hard things that I had to face about myself, but also I got to look into good things about me that I don’t ever think about but things that my friends see about me.
One of my favorite parts of the retreat was sitting on a wooden bridge by the river. I was just dangling my legs over the water swinging them. I felt free and at peace. The sun was always shining on me and it just felt like the Lord was so very present with me in that time. I felt most like myself and was just so thankful that I was allowed this opportunity to be quiet and sit with the Lord in all these thoughts that I had. To sit with him about how can best reflect him and how he has changed me over these last few months.
The silent retreat was very special for me. It was a time that I really needed to be introspective. I have felt like I haven’t really had time to think about things. My life is just really busy with fellows stuff and other things in life. So having time to sit still and be silent with the Lord to think about the ways that I have grown this year has been such a great thing that I really needed.
-Dyl