God’s Whisper

This past weekend, my daughter and I attended a writer’s retreat at God’s Whisper Farm.

Located in Radiant, Virginia, the home of Andi and Phillip and their family of dogs, cats, goats and chickens, is a place where one finds peace and quiet, laughter and wisdom, a place to hear God’s whisper.

After Andi showed us to our room upstairs in the old farm house, we took a brief tour of the farm.

      

We enjoyed a healthy dinner and read some of our work around the campfire. That’s when I discovered fireflies! An abundance of fireflies blinking on and off around the farmhouse! I took a video with my phone. Maybe some day, I’ll figure out how to load my phone videos to this blog. For now, just know that fireflies are alive and well at God’s Whisper Farm, where I did not notice any mosquitoes.

On Saturday morning, after a walking meditation led by Kelly Chripczuk, Andi read to us from The Mindful Writer, then we worked on writing exercises to help us explore what we need to let go of, what gets in the way of our writing, and what we love about writing.

On Saturday afternoon, we each workshopped a piece of writing and received helpful feedback from the group. Then Andi, author of The Slaves Have Names, and author Shawn Smucker, shared their knowledge and experience on writing and publishing.

After dinner, my daughter and I visited the neighboring pasture where the cows watched us with curiosity, from a distance.

We looked for the deer we saw on the hilltop Friday evening. This time, I was ready with my zoom lens, but the deer must’ve had other plans for Saturday night.

Later, we rejoined the group around the fire in the field and listened to Shawn read the first chapter of his book: The Day The Angels Fell.

 

On the last day of the retreat, we talked about making time for our writing and how important this is for our well being. Shawn passed along a question asked by the rector of his church:

“Could it be that God delights in the things that bring us happiness?”

I come home from this retreat with gratitude for the encouragement and affirmation I received, with a new sense of excitement and direction for my work, preparing me to make a leap of faith, with confidence that God’s whisper is leading me on a path of creativity and freedom.  I believe it is a path that will delight the Creator who ignited this creative spark in me many years ago, knowing it would come alive when the time was right.

All photos on this post were taken by JoAnne Silvia at God’s Whisper Farm.

Farm Vision

This weekend, my daughter and I are visiting God’s Whisper Farm for a writer’s retreat. When I looked at pictures of the farm, I couldn’t tell much about the lay of the land. My daughter had asked me if it was in the mountains, and I wasn’t sure. To us flatlanders, it is practically mountainous. The air smells crisp like mountains and the nights are cooler than our Carolina swelters. What a relief!

The best surprise so far: fireflies! My recent post lamented about the lack of firefly sightings in my city, and here they are! I must have seen at least 50 twinklers last night! Plus, there are no mosquitoes here! The animals on the farm, goats dogs, and chickens, have lots of room to roam. This fits my vision of what a farm should be.

If I could do anything I wanted, I’d have a farm like this one. I envision people coming to relax, meditate, quit smoking and get healthy. There would be music, bonfires and maybe yoga classes. Oh, and I’d have one room for an art studio. As long as I’m visualizing, why not throw in a stream or a babbling brook.  Tomatoes, corn, basil, squash, beans and arugula growing in the garden.  A pecan tree with a tire swing. Lots of trees, but also open space to see the stars. And fireflies.

I’m looking forward to writing, getting feedback, enjoying the company of other writers and relaxing in this beautiful space.  It’s a good time to connect with my daughter too.

Within a few days, I hope to have some photos to share for more visual detail.

 

Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday post prompt for today was “vis.”

If you’d like to join in the fun, visit:

http://lindaghill.com/2015/07/24/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-2515/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

Prayer, Support and Healing

We got a phone call, last Thursday night, that my two year old grandson, 700 miles away, was in the hospital with a bad case of pneumonia. A little while later I found out he had been helicoptered to a university hospital and was on a ventilator.
It was the night before our parish retreat at Trinity Center, where my husband and I would have leadership roles in morning and evening prayer services. Part of me wanted to get on a plane and fly to where my grandson was. Maybe I could help with something. But instead I prayed and tried to have faith that God had this covered. I asked for prayers on Facebook, something I don’t do often, especially for myself or some one in my family. Why is it easier for me to ask for prayers for some one outside of my family, or total strangers even? Maybe it’s the scary part of feeling vulnerable when I ask for prayers for myself or some one close to me.

The little guy was on my mind all day Friday. I’d called my Dad, the most powerful prayer warrior I know, to join the team. At times I was able to push away my fears and visualize my grandson healthy and strong, running and playing outside with a smile on his face.  That felt like the right thing to do.

Late Friday afternoon, at Trinity Center, my husband, David,  asked me to follow him. I figured he wanted to show me something. He took me to the little chapel where tea light candles rested in a bowl of sand, waiting.  Together, we lit a candle for my grandson, and David read from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer: A Prayer for Healing. I was moved that he thought of this. After dinner, at the Compline service, I asked my church family to pray with me. I prayed for my grandson’s healing, for wisdom for his doctors and nurses, and for comfort to his parents. I was worried, but something told me God was working on this.

On Saturday morning, we got up at dawn to watch the sun rise over the ocean, but the sky was overcast, so we couldn’t see the sun. Instead we watched pelicans dive for their breakfast. After our breakfast in the dining hall, we had Morning Prayer, discussion and meditation time. Then, I went back to our room to get an update on my grandson. His doctor had decided to use a scope to take a look into his collapsed right lung. They found an obstruction  that could not be removed with the scope, so surgery was needed. The obstruction turned out to be a kidney bean.

Use with caution!

 

Who knew kidney beans could cause that kind of trouble?

 

 

 

 

That night, during Evening Prayer, I was filled with gratitude as we sang “Amazing Grace” accompanied by simple guitar chords and the sweet rain dancing outside.

After the kidney bean was removed, my grandson’s condition began to improve right away. His right lung started to work, and he came off the ventilator. He was discharged from the hospital on Sunday. His mom said he was so ready to go, he almost ran out the door.

What a relief to know he was okay! But it was not a total surprise. I’d felt the fear, but there was much more hope. Being at Trinity Center, surrounded by nature, with my husband and members of our church family, was a big comfort. I realized how important it is to have good support and to have a relationship with a loving, caring power greater than ourselves.

Thank you, God!

For a look at Trinity Center, where we held our parish retreat:

http://joannesilvia.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/trinity-weekend-relax-restore-and-revitalize-with-nature/