ROS'

Due to the nature of my work, my IV area (at least) requires that I go on occasional day-long silent retreats away from noise, people, and daily hubbub to listen for God's voice/direction. So far, the two that I've done haven't been very successful. My first one was in ann arbor, where I thought I'd easily find a place to go. It turned out to be fairly difficult - everything and everyone was a little too familiar, and I wanted to avoid running into someone I knew. And, many of the quiet places reminded me of terrible nights of paper-writing or studying. I opted for the law library, which I found to be a little too sterile for a retreat. Eventually, I ended back at tammy/enid/amanda/rose's apartment, where I cut my retreat short to cook and eat dinner with tammy. (yay.)

My second one was a few weeks ago here in cleveland. I decided to go to Julia + Theresa's apartment, which is directly above mine. Theresa and some of her friends from the cleveland clinic decided to eat our pre-thanksgiving potluck leftovers, so I then decided to go sit (in my car) by the lake in the park nearby. An hour later, I realized that I had forgotten to turn my lights off. a'derrr, especially since I was sitting in my car the entire time. So, a friend ended up taking me to get some jumper cables and help start my car. (I also called M. Papai, the ohio divisional director, for help. he's so good at everything.)

Slightly deflated, I headed back to Julia and Theresa's place for some quiet. I went into the apartment, saw that the lights were on, thought that was weird, and then proceeded into the living room where I found this:


"MANU?!! where did your legs go?"

Our 6-ft tall friend Manu (from the clinic) enfolded inside Julia's sheepskin rug like a giant zhongze, taking a nap. I thought it was so hilarious that I LOLed and woke him up. And that was pretty much the end of my retreat of silence.