With the first hints of northern breezes, courtesy of Hurricane Irene, I enjoyed a great two days helping with our church college group’s first retreat. Due to the fact that the student center was destroyed along with our building, maintaining a vibrant active college group is a high priority. We needed a place to hold 40-50 people, including chaperones….which I quickly realized made me feel old. REALLY old. We needed a place away from the destruction and reconstruction and reminders of last April. And a place to offer some relief from the weather. Some friends of ours offered up their cabin out in the country for the weekend. This is her grandmother’s small 4 room house that was remodeled and updated for their home away from home when they want to find some peace and quiet.
It was perfect. Not just for them, but also for me. I needed to get as far away from the stresses of this past week and back to a place where breezes blew the mosquitoes away. And a chance to spend time with family and close friends to remind me that my world is bigger than a small round school.
Yes, those are s’mores. I get the chance to enjoy these maybe 3-4 tmes a year and that’s plenty. They are sweet. They are gooey. They are horrible for diabetics. But I know the consequences and yes…tonight was worth it. I felt like a college kid again where I had my very first s’more in Adamsville, TN. I enjoyed a trip down the memory highway of just a few years ago I was the one at my retreats enjoying the fall air and nothing to worry about but grades, gas money, and how to go about directing a killer Makin’ Music show (which we did, 9 months later). I completely forgot about the issues at school, the bills, the heat and humidity and found myself getting so excited about ALABAMA FOOTBALL which kicks off in 6 short days. I enjoyed this retreat away and now looking forward to new beginnings.