The In Between

As a break between the clips, I wanted to tell you about the Prayer Retreat I went on. On Saturday 8am, 11 other women and I arrived in the Santa Cruz mountains to a day away from crazy San Jose, a day with our Heavenly Father. We started with an artistic endeavor to sort of loosen up our creative juices. Then we moved over to the chapel for some focused prayer time. At this point, I still had a lot of my mind that I was trying to leave behind. After the chapel time, it was free time to spend with the Lord. I took a nature walk through a trail in the mountains. I felt so joyful to be there, absorbing in the different aspects of the environment as I walked by a creek and the darks greens of the forest to top of the hills with the dry grass and oak/walnut trees. It was lovely. At lunch we discussed what we had experienced thus far. We had another two and half hours after lunch to be by ourselves. I chose to carry chair out into the forest, off trail, to a more secluded location. Here I journaled about all the sounds I heard, wrote out some of the issues I was having at the time that were keeping me distanced from God, and just took time breathe in and out the air and observe the beauty of God's creation. Have you noticed how forests are filled with life and death, growth and decay? It is an interesting contrast. We had another intimate time in the chapel, and then ended with dinner at a small Italian restaurant in Los Gatos. What an excellent day!

Anyhoo, more movie clips will be coming soon (I think there are at least 4 more).