Women of Grace Retreat

The Women of Grace retreat this year was all about creating whitespace in your life.  The speaker was Bonnie Gray, who writes the blog Faith Barista and the book Finding Spiritual Whitespace: Awakening Your Soul to Rest.  It was an amazing weekend.  The worship was sweet and powerful.  The sessions were poignant and meaningful and fun.  The workshops were full of discernment.  There were even yoga and workouts that were just what I needed.  The hotel and food is always excellent.  The women are amazing and make it feel like a big huge family reunion - even for the new comers.  I came away this year feeling lighter.  That's the only way I can explain it.  I think I went to the past two retreats so heavy burdened, almost wounded spiritually, that it was a hard thing to experience and then come back from a retreat to the real world.  This time I feel like I came back ready.  I wasn't as wounded going in, and I definitely came back feeling like I experienced some of that whitespace that God wants for us.  Like Bonnie pointed out, Jesus calls us to come away with him and rest.  We all need that and it's important to make time for that.  Being busy is part of life much of the time, but there has to be whitespace, for rest and meeting with the Lord.
It wasn't all serious and preachy though.  Bonnie isn't a preachy speaker at all.  There was plenty of room for laughter and some silliness.  Nae Nae showed up and did the Nae Nae.  She shows up at each retreat.  She's hard to explain, so we'll just call her the comic relief of the Women of Grace retreat.

I also got to spend some time with some wonderful ladies that I don't get to see nearly as much as I'd like.  I'm so thankful for these ladies that befriended my family when we moved to Maryland and have been such sweet friends since!  We all tried out the Dobbin House and hung out together. That's something I don't get to do very often - just hang out with people I like.  It's very refreshing.  

So this year's retreat was a shining success to me.  I learned a little about myself, about who Jesus made me to be, and how to protect some of that space in life to just be.  And I got to do things I enjoy - like eat cheesecake, hang out with friends, meet new people, worship through song, yoga, and read.  It was a very needed and wonderful weekend.