Abbey Journal – “Adventures”

Saturday, October 8, 2011
11:30am
I slept in a bit this morning as I stayed up too late last night finishing the incredible story of Lillian Trasher.  WOW!  She lived by faith every day.  She saw God provide every day.  Yet she had her moments of weariness and times where her faith was challenged.   I lay snuggled in my bed for quite some time, then got up to spend time with God through – praying, reading the Word & to read the day’s devotion from Jesus Calling.

I picked another room that I had not been in yet, one with the morning sun pouring through the window.  Then I went downstairs for my breakfast.  I chose to eat in the community room today and after breakfast; Joyous and I spent some time sharing.  We shared about what God had spoken to us thus far, some concerns and then spent a lovely time in prayer together.  Now I am off to do some more exploring.  There is a walking trail that takes you down by a lake and covers more of the property.  Today is warmer, still clear skies and sunny, 66 degrees.  I wonder what adventure awaits!!!!!!

2:30pm
My walk was a bit unnerving at first, once the house was out of sight and I was into the woods far enough to not hear anything.  Joyous had reassured me it was safe, I had invited Jesus to go with me & after the book about Lillian Trasher and her experiences; my fear seemed a bit trivial.  However, it is not like I hike in woods I have never been in before, alone, every day!

The weather was perfect; I moved on to enjoy the morning.  I saw chipmunks and leftover stone walls from the properties’ history.  At one point I felt the sense to stop.  I stopped and just listened.  I had been paying such careful attention to where I was stepping, I hadn’t noticed the symphony of birds singing and playing all around me.  I took it in the best I could.

A chick-a-dee flitted from branch to branch on my left until she was on a branch that hung in front of where I was standing.  She stopped to look at me as if to say, “Hello.  What are you doing in my forest,” and then she continued on across to my right.  I told her out loud, “I don’t know what I am doing here.  I have come away to be with Jesus and I don’t want to be in the house anymore.”  The path moseyed down and around a small lake.  Some of the leaves on the trees around the lake were changing colors, mostly reds with a few orange.

The path ended just down the hill from the back of the retreat house at an old apple orchard, where I met the son of a neighbor who was picking apples from one of the trees.  We chatted a bit about the property.  He offered me an apple.  It was quite delicious. I don’t know if it really was delicious or if it was because the apple was picked off a tree in an old orchard as opposed to buying it in a store.

I set out for The Big Red Apple a local fruit & veggie market just a little bit further west of the orchard.  It is a big white barn with a large red apple hanging over the entrance. They make homemade doughnuts and pies and muffins too! The doughnut and the raspberry muffin were tasty.  I suppose that was lunch.  Ran into Joyous and we walked back together.  The morning was not particularly spiritual, but restful & peaceful. On second thought, I guess it was quite spiritual!

9:00pm
I read some & took a nap.  I got up and looked out the window at the swing.  I decided to take my bible, journal and some colored pencils Joyous had given us and sit on the swing.  After quite some time, I had had my eye on a large rock out in the meadow that lay between the house and the apple orchard.  I was drawn to go and sit on it.  I took my journal with me and off I went through the tall grass about mid-calf high dotted with a white and purple wild flowers.  I took giant high steps, cautiously hoping that there weren’t any snakes warmed too much by the day’s sun!  It was around 5pm and the sun was getting ready to go down. (Did you know that the sun sets and rises about an hour earlier in Massachusetts than in Florida, even though we are on the same time zone?  Massachusetts is considerably farther east than Florida.)

The rock made a nice sitting place, despite the fact it was a rock!.  I stood up at one point to stretch and consider walking back to the swing.  Still standing on the rock, I turned around to face the house and there was a wild turkey in front of the swing.  Then there were 16 of them making their way into the meadow for their supper. Held hostage on my rock by wild turkeys.  They finally made their way past me enough that I didn’t think I would disturb them and then I giant stepped back to the swing.

Over dinner we had some sweet sharing time of our highlights with God thus far and just aspects of our time away that we enjoyed.  Up to my bedroom to catch up with the Tony and the kids and I am calling it a night of a very good day!