CEW

On Friday night at 7:30, Husband and my kids dropped me off at C's school. (Our Parish school.) I had registered in mid-January for our Parish's annual CEW (Christian Experience Weekend) retreat. It had been recommended to me by lots of people so I thought why not?

Everyone told me that it was a good way to meet people, get involved and that the food was really good.

All of that was true. No one mentioned how little sleep you would get and that you would come out on the other side absolutely exhausted. Which is probably for the best, but I wish I had taken a nap on Friday!

Anyway, many times the leaders would talk about how some people really had "mountain top experiences" that were life changing. And some people would really hate their weekend. I think I fall somewhere in the middle. Which is good.

I met good people. I heard good talks. I did cry some, though not as much as some people. We had time spent in prayer. Not a lot of time spent in rest. We had Mass. We had a really beautiful setting for Reconciliation. We had pretty good discussion. And I am glad I went.

It's weird, there's a lot of secrecy surrounding the retreat. And it's kinda like a secret club--once you're in the know, you're in the know. So there are many things that were gorgeous and surprising that I would like to talk about but I can't. Husband is going on the men's retreat in two weeks so at least I can talk to him about it when he gets home.

Throughout the weekend, every clock in the school was covered with a sign that said "God's time." And the windows were mostly covered. As in, we could generally tell if it was light or dark but not too much. We were DEEPLY encouraged to not bring our phones. I did bring my phone but I left it in my bag by my bed unless we were sleeping. I did exchange a few text messages with Husband and he sent me some pictures of the kids but I was able to almost completely disconnect from internet and THAT was good.

No phone however meant no pictures, which is a shame because some of the decorations were really beautiful. I would have instagramed the heck out of them! Alas. :) My family picked me up at about 5:15 yesterday and I kissed the heck out of those cheeks.

I'm not sure what the lasting impact will be of the retreat yet. But I am looking forward to finding out.