I had a great 3 day retreat over New Years on Joy, It was really nice. We had silent periods and periods of discussion on the topic of joy. Also it was close enough to walk into Garden of the Gods (Colorado Springs). I was manager and chef which I enjoyed a lot, people like the type of food I make for retreats. For monastics they eat breakfast, a big mid-day meal and in the evening a light tea. So we had butternut squash soup for one tea time and cheese, crackers, olives and apples for the other one.

I knew an estranged friend was coming. We broke off our contact at the time my daughter announced her pregnancy and the grandbaby is 2 months old now. She contacted me ahead of time since I was the manager about some details and it was fine. We didn't talk about what happened (mostly a collision of when I really needed someone to talk to at the time she needed to go into hermit mode). So we shared kitchen work and had some hugs and some laughs. She said she was planning on coming to our Monday night group again and wanted to visit our nun in Colo. Springs more, to which I offered to carpool.

I felt pretty tough with how I did my lodging. The retreats do not have a place to stay so you need to get a hotel or make arrangements. I wanted super simple and there is an RV park across the street with bunkhouse, cabins and other options besides bringing an RV. So I rented a cabin, un-insulated, brought an extra space heater and electric blanket. The bathrooms and showers are separate and my body needs to get up several times a night. So I set up a chamber pot deal because there was no way in 15 degree weather I was going to walk across the park to a potty. I was warm enough at night. It reminded me so much of how monks and nuns live in the Buddhist tradition, so very quiet (NO ONE else was renting a cabin) and simple. No TV or radio or cushy places to sit. I spent the day across the street in the meditation hall anyway.

At midnight we stepped outside and could see the fireworks at the top of Pike's peak from the yard. A wonderful thing to do in silence.