Road Trip
Do you know what I love to do? I love to travel… anywhere. So on Friday, when three friends piled into my car and we headed east on Hwy 2, I felt like it was the last day of school and I was heading into summer vacation. We were headed to the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, a place that knows how to treat women well! Wine tastings, classy food and cozy white bed linens, all in a rustic, log cabin environment provides the perfect setting for a road trip, and in this case, Sheridan’s Women’s Retreat. One of my friends asked before we left, “What are you going to wear?” Since I am no rookie, I passed on my tip of “Comfy clothes!” because elastic waistbands are essential in sampling three desserts when the mood strikes.
I delighted in salmon and roasted veggies for dinner (and carrot cake and raspberry cheesecake and some chocolate trifle thing) and then settled into our first session of “Sacred Spaces for Stories”. I was a little apprehensive coming into the sessions since we had been asked to come prepared with “a woman’s story -in particular one that has touched you or been important in your life.” My brain translated that into “get the tissues ready because we are going to be sharing our feelings”. Since I am easily bribed with food, wine and a sleepover with friends, I pushed that little tidbit to the back of my head and carried on. The beautiful and grace-filled author, Tosca Lee, was our speaker for the weekend. I have read all her books and fell in love with her novel, “Iscariot,” so I was eager to hear what she had to say. She was easy to listen to as she shared stories about her childhood, parents, fiancé and her career with tenderness and humor.
On Saturday I woke up ready to “write my story”. All day Tosca challenged us: Why do we tell stories? What story in your life is one that you need to tell for yourself? What story do you need to tell for someone else? What story are you terrified to tell? After Tosca’s inspiring sessions, it was time to put words on paper. In hindsight, I didn’t need to be worried about sharing a story, because what I thought I was supposed to write about, was not what God put on my heart. God spoke mercy and sweetness into memories from my childhood, memories that reappeared to me to be treasured, memories that could be shared in a sacred space with sisters united in Him. God reminded me that we’ve taken lots of road trips together. I wonder where we’re going next?
This post was written by Julie Anderson.