I've been a bit busy. I went to Kansas last Thursday for a retreat with Religious Society of Friends, otherwise known as the Quakers. We flew into Saint Louis and stayed at the delightful home of two Friends. They call their home Pilgrim's Rest. And it was restful indeed for Jeaenene and me.

On Friday we drove with them across Kansas to a small and somewhat primitive retreat center for a couple of days with a group of Friends that meet once a year.

I never opened my computer. I never pulled out my camera to take pictures. Writing about the retreat was so far away from my mind that these things did not occur to me. Well, once or twice I wondered if I should snap some pictures, but even the idea of that seemed so out of keeping with the peaceful state in which we were "being," that I never did.

I had only been to two Quaker meetings before, both of them unprogrammed, meaning the Friends sit in silence waiting for Spirit to move. (They drop the article on Spirit, which gives it a very mysterious sound). By the end of the retreat, it seemed to me the most natural thing in the world to sit quietly with people. I had the feeling that silence is the normal state of humanity, and talking a kind of interruption of that norm. And not a particularly welcome interruption.

This from, as my daughter once called me, a professional talker.

I'm still processing all of this. It was a powerful time for me. I absolutely fell in love with a number of the people, and I'm grieving that loss. I think I convinced myself that their world was my world.

But it is not. I live far away. And while I would like to go again next year (and might), the truth is that life is full of things to do and places to go. Next year might or might not work.

A few years ago I began referring to Christians as "the friends of Jesus." I liked the sound of it. That idea is very much in my mind right now. You will hear more from me on this. Undoubtedly I will write something serious and careful about this last weekend. But I'm not ready for that yet.

rlp