Silent Retreat (sort of)

I spent this past weekend in Auburn at a silent retreat on the theme of the feminine in the early church, sponsored by the Community of the Transfiguration, an Episcopal religious community of which I am an Associate. Connie and Lee, two good friends from up here, made the trip with me. Not surprisingly, in preparation for two days of silence, we talked pretty much the whole time during the six hour drive down, and did the same on the way back. Once there, I found that I had a couple of errands to do, which took me away from the retreat center and into the charming town of Auburn. So, it ended up being more of an enjoyable little getaway, punctuated by interesting presentations by our presenter, Rev. Ann Hallisey (see above). I suppose that it was an encounter with the feminine in the contemporary church, and a worthwhile and enjoyable weekend.

In anticipation of the weekend, I wrote the following (alphabet) poem:

The Silent Retreat

A few days set aside for
being quiet, when I
cease talking about
daily concerns, and not verbally
engage the
familiar, mundane topics that
generally fill my
head.
Instead, I seek to
just
keep silence, in order to
let the
mind take a rest, and
not do anything special. The
objective is to simply be
present to the
quiet place within, and
realize that all of the
sounds
that
usually
vibrate in my head,
waxing melodic like a
xylophone, actually
yield
ziltch.