Back from Retreat

I'm back! ~ which I suppose means I'm about to start posting many days' worth of photos!

This retreat started and ended with a dramatic difference from most similar experiences of my life, which have been remarkably solitary endeavors.  I have been to two other Jesuit retreat houses, in Ontario and in Michigan, and both times I arrived knowing no one.  (In fact, when I went to Guelph the first time, the Canadian customs official at the border looked quite skeptical when my response to his question about whom I knew at my stated destination was "Nobody.")  And then I left knowing no one except the spiritual director with whom I'd been meeting.

This time I made a day of my journeys both ways, starting last Tuesday with breakfast at seminary with one of my professors and moving on toward a meeting and meal with Wayne of Stratoz and Michelle of Quantum Theology!  Wayne has visited us here so it was a little reunion for us, while for Michelle and me it was a first time meeting after many, many online exchanges!  The photo is stolen from her FB post.  Yesterday I made a reverse expedition, stopping again at the seminary to meet up with another professor and then talk with and have dinner with other friends.  I received a lot of questions about what eight days of silence is like, so I'll write a bit about that when I get around to it.

For now, let me just add as a footnote that it is extremely fun to have dinner at the seminary without an evening of study in the library looming ahead!