As an introvert, I require times of solitude. I love people. I love being with people. However, I process information by being alone.

Silent retreats aren’t difficult for me. During this triduum of silence, I have been encouraged to go beyond the familiar silence of my whispering mind to that deeper place where God alone dwells.

So this retreat is a time to be with the Beloved. The One who loves us so very very much and will wait with us for an eternity to open our hearts to that love. Silent only to God’s voice.

In silence I eat with Beloved. In silence I walk with the Beloved. The Beloved sits with me as I read and I write. The Beloved is with me in my resting and my rising.

In the quiet, I am reading Scarlet Music, a novel about the twelfth century abbess, mystic, poet, composer, prophet, healer, and artist, St. Hildegarde of Bingen. Here, freshly translated, is one my favorite quotes.

….but I stretch out my hand to God to be sustained by him like a feather born on the wind.

Amen.

I flew to Augusta, Georgia, yesterday on what may be the two easiest plane trips of the Sabbatical. I was picked up at the airport by Sister Miriam who delivered me to St. Helena’s Convent in time for Vespers.

St Helena’s is the home of the Order of St. Helena, an Episcopal community for women religious which, as God would have it, celebrated the anniversary of their founding today.

I have wanted to come here since the earliest days of the planning of my Sabbatical because St.Mary’s uses their excellent inclusive language version of the Psalms, the St. Helena Psalter. This began as a field trip of sorts which has led to a three day silent retreat.

A am a little over half way through my Sabbatical, and it is time to be alone with the God of love.

Ending a lovely visit to Oregon in Portland at Stumptown Coffee. My flight to Houston leaves at 11.30 PM, and charging my phone here, journaling, and knitting is more pleasant than doing it at the airport.

I rode the shuttle from Bend to Portland first thing this morning (riding buses is a Sabbatical sub theme). I rented a car for the day so I could spend some time with one of my dear Women Touched by Grace friends.

WTBG is an Eli Lilly Foundation Sustaining Pastoral Excellence grant for women clergy that sent me and 29 other chick pastors on retreat six times in three years at Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove, Indiana, once in Italy, and a couple of post grant bonus retreats. It was life-changing.

Being with Laurie was the perfect way to end a spirit-filling trip to see my family in Bend.

Much much much more delicious than even this delicious cappacino and fig and fennel scone.

While my daughter rides out Hurricane Sandy in safety at the rectory, I’m in Bend for Halloween (which is a holiday I really don’t care for, but is delightful when a two year old dressed as Curious George does it) and for Jonas’ baby shower, and most of all, to simply be with the Bend Fains.

All treats today!!