I attended my first writer’s retreat at an Airbnb in the Texas Hill Country last weekend. It won’t be my last. It was refreshing despite hours at the computer and hours of driving. Getting there, I broke the trip into two parts. After several errands on Thursday morning, I drove to New Braunfels in time to hear my two youngest granddaughters recite poems with their class. So much fun. It always brings back lots of memories of my own children and the years I taught speech.
My granddaughter, five-year-old Ellie, still has her dragon fetish. Annabelle, the oldest, caught a new lizard. (She already has three.) My daughter informed me later the new one was strictly a “catch and release” situation. And Ria, the middle child, was helpful in all the ways that matter.
I left at 10:30 the next day and drove up Highway 281, almost to Burnet. The views were spectacular. Lots of twists and turns on the way to my destination. We stayed in a remodeled farmhouse on a lake. The mornings and evenings were quite pleasant, but the midday heat was enough to drive us off the sun porch into the AC. The days were quiet as each person found a spot and wrote for hours. I finally reached “The End” on my manuscript. It only lacked a few pages, but with the busyness of daily life, it hadn’t happened. The next day, I spent hours getting the chapters divided up into similar word counts. It’s easy to write a scene and not pay attention to how long it is. Or to have ongoing action and forget to break it up into days and nights.
We opted to bring food and eat in. Always fun and way too much food. One night we did taco salads. The next day it was casseroles and sides. The snack/dessert bar overflowed. As much as I try to keep a food-free zone when I write, I indulged in small bowls of trail mix. Ignoring the peanuts and M&M’s would have been sheer neglect.
On Saturday night, we exchanged writer gifts, which was a big hit. We traded around a lot of writing craft books, cups, and t-shirts. Most of us left a copy of one of our books for the owner because you never know when you’ll find a fan.
I drove back fairly early Sunday morning as our oldest grandson turned twelve and had a birthday party. We made new acquaintances and ate hamburgers and hotdogs with chili and shared an ice cream confetti cake. He received mostly Roblox gift cards, which he adored. His other favorite was a t-shirt about his worst nightmare being no power for electronics.
After a busy weekend, I played catch up with weekend tasks that still needed to happen. And, after several doses of news about world events and no church attendance, I felt anxious. Everywhere we turn, the forecast is gloom and doom. Unrest and wars abound. It feels like the entire world is holding its collective breath to see the outcome of the election in November.
Especially now, it’s important to understand what we need to focus on. Jesus said there would be wars and rumors of wars, but the Bible teaches us to keep our eyes on what God is up to. It’s imperative to make sure our perspective aligns with His. He certainly hasn’t given up on any country or person. And lest we think He doesn’t care or has forgotten us, Scripture says, “For God understands all hearts, and He sees you.” (Proverbs 24:12, NLT)