Renewal

I haven't written for a while, I know! I have been busy visiting California, and this weekend I went on a retreat with JVC Northwest in one of the most beautiful locations I've ever seen.  I will write out more about what this trip home and retreat entailed, and update you all on life, but for now, I'm going to leave you with this Mary Oliver poem.  It was a symbol of our retreat and I think it sums up everything.

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to
walk on your knees
For a hundred miles
through the desert, repenting.
You only have to
let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about
despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world
goes on.
Meanwhile the sun
and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across
the landscapes,
over the prairies
and the deep trees,
the mountains and
the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild
geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home
again.

This world is all we've got. Let's breathe it all in.