Of Canceled Retreats and Other Ramifications of COVID-19

Today is the day that I would have gone to the Create in Me retreat, if these were normal times.  I feel some sadness about that canceled retreat, but the thought of traveling right now is just unfathomable to me.  I'm glad that we had no choice in the matter.

I would have seen friends along the way, and I'm sorry that I won't get to see them.  I may plan a consolation trip where I go to see them anyway.  It feels hard to plan anything right now.

Today is the day that I would have met up with my parents at the Create in Me retreat.  In retrospect, I now know that meet up wouldn't have happened, even if the retreat had gone on as planned, even if there had been no pandemic.

Let me be happy that my parents are still with me on this side of the grave, that the prognosis is good, that I can expect to see them again.

Let me also be happy that we live in an age where we can connect by way of technology.  Last night I had my Mepkin journaling group by way of Zoom meeting.  Tomorrow, I will join a different online journaling group by way of Zoom.  On Saturday, there will be yet another Zoom meeting with a Create in Me group.  And earlier in the day, a few friends from my grad school era tea and crafting group may try to connect online--we are a far-flung group with one of us in England. 

I am lucky that I am nourished by these online connections.  I'm also aware that these connections nourish me in part because they first nourished me in person.  I'm grateful for nourishment wherever I can get it these days.

I'm also thinking about this kind of nourishment, even as we go back to whatever normal is going to look like.  As churches and retreat organizers, should we be offering this kind of nourishment more often?

What would our lives look like if we had monthly or weekly opportunities, not just a once a year trip to the mountaintop of inspiration?