The seasons turn

Seasons change. As they do, they bring us new gifts, offer us new challenges.

How do we move through the seasons open to the gifts, ready for the challenges?

One way: retreat. Take time out to breathe, to reflect, to be.

In July, I will lead a retreat for Women in Ministry in the Uniting Church in NSW and ACT settings. Our theme is Autumn. The changing of seasons, the falling leaves, the letting go and retreating.

I am planning for us to engage our senses, with crushed leaves and coloured pencils and walks in the outdoors, and communion’s embodiment of God’s Story.

I am planning for us to engage with story, our own, the Sacred Story, and through prayer and writing and listening.

With Lauren, of Rise Events + Santuary, I am planning to equip participants to spend time in self-led retreat, with a gift parcel for each, and opportunity to reflect with me as listener if that’s helpful.

I am planning, preparing, praying for the women who will attend, and attend to their being and their God with time out from the ordinary, the everyday. The gift, simply, of time, an act of lovingkindness in partnership with the church for deep, renewing, care.

How might you offer yourself the gift of time for rest, retreat, reflection? For an hour, a day, a week.

Step away from the everyday and attend to your wellbeing, your praying, your presence with God. However you can, so as to move through the changing seasons open to the gifts and ready for the challenges they bring.