Staff Retreat

Last month saw the Circuit Staff Retreat, which took place over three days at Whalley Abbey - picture above, and more on my Flickr Stream.

It was a great chance to stop, take stock, and take in instead of give out - there was plenty of opportunity to be creative and to enjoy the surroundings; many of the pictures were taken on a walk that some of us did literally from the doorstep.

I did a little bit of writing while there, and I thought I'd share them here....

I found somewhere to sit and rest
I found a place – just me
An opportunity to be refreshed
A chance to simply be.

A thousand things that must be done
How many want things of me!
But God demands a single one:
“Spend time alone with Me!”

The time I spent alone with God
Enabled me to see
It mattered not the speed I trod
Much more, it was with thee.



As I sought silence
Time to spend with God
Sounds reached my straining ears
Birds singing
A distant car
Footsteps
A door opening
My own breathing

Where was the quiet?
How could I seek God?

But in these moments
Those gentle noises
Helped me to know that God sought me.....



“Seek and ye shall find” came the words
And so I went out to seek.
I searched the skies
I searched the Earth
I turned over the rocks
I delved into the deeps of the ocean
I looked in every place I could find
But I did not find what I was seeking.

In despair, I stood still;
In silence, I thought of all I had seen

Then I began to laugh – for I realised that what I had been seeking was there all along,
Just needing me to name and recognise the God that is everywhere that we seek
And that is also within ourselves.