A Very Peaceful Retreat

I have just returned from Tortugas, Peru which is about 45 minutes outside of Chimbote. Coming back from the retreat and returning to reality is always a slap in the face. Every morning of the retreat, we did Tai Chi, prayer/meditation and received our assignment that sometimes involved painting, composing music or writing a poem - we used a lot of the left side of the brain to get in touch with the Divine. Everyone enjoyed the creative outlets. I haven't written a song or painted in ages - it was great. We were relieved the retreat was not a lecture or presentation. I was very grateful for my time there. It was my first time out of Chimbote since I arrived last August so it was a bit of a shock to my system - things were soooo quiet.

It was also a very active retreat for me. Thanks to the general interest of others, I was motivated to go running every morning and did yoga by the bay and swimming in the ocean every afternoon. In the evening, we got together for sharing and reflection and had daily Eucharistic service with readings in the chapel. The nights were short. There was not much to do at night other than cards or the dice game one of the missionaries brought. We walked down the road for a beer one night. All in all, a great community sharing time. Electricity was only on between 6pm and 11 pm so much to our dismay, we turned in early every night. The early bedtime allowed us to take in more of the early hours of the day so it was all good.

The music of the waves on the bay were constant and glorious the entire time there. The waves would crash against the shoreline and roll back over the rocks which to me sounded like a rain stick. A very peaceful retreat. We were the only ones there for the majority of the time. Below are some pictures and there is a link to my albums on the right that shows more of the locale. It gave us all a time to reflect where we have been the last 6 months and where we are going. Blessings on the IW Missionaries in Mexico as they start their retreat this week.