Spokane retreat

Well, that was some trip. We left on Wednesday and went to Browning, where Liz (our support person) had a sister-in-law who would put us up. Her name is Anne but everyone calls her Butch. I didn't ask why. Maureen got up very early because there was a POOL in Browning. I swear she knows the locations of every pool in Montana. There aren't any within 80 miles of our town, so she jumps at the chance to swim again. Her old swim team just sent us three boxes of stuff for the kids and for us, which was so exciting.

Then we got our oil changed. Maureen realized she had forgotten her watch at the pool. So she went back, and who should she run into but the mother of one of the JVs in Alaska. What a coincidence.

Even though we did part of the trip on Wednesday and had a one-hour time change cushion, we were a few hours late getting into Spokane. I think we had the longest drive, as all the Alaska folk flew down. It was nice seeing them all, but I couldn't remember the names of half or them. Each community got their own cabin.

Basically all retreat we worked on the Enneagram, this personality type system. I was a 5, the observer, which was no surprise to me. Each type has a fundamental principle that they lost sight of, and for my type, its that there is an ample supply of energy and knowledge. Our controlling vice is to be stingy with our time. So actually the worst thing I could do for my spiritual development would be to become a hermit, even though that idea is so appealing to me. I need to not resent it when friends and work take my time, and not worry so much about collecting up a store of knowledge about everything. Every day I wake up and I want to run away, escape from all expectations and demands. But every day I make the choice to stay. So I am trying.

The trip back from Spokane was a lot quicker, because we went through Great Falls instead. We have grocery shopping down to an art now, and managed to stuff it all into our already overstuffed car, and returned very tired.