May 14, 2009

retreat part 4: rain or shine?!?!?!

Things I Really, Really Missed While On Retreat:

-the weather report (somewhat hilariously - I had no idea I was so fascinated with the weather report, but almost every day I had some deviant thought about opening up my cell phone NOT to call anyone, but to send a text message to Google and get the weather report)
-fruit juice (particularly grapefruit juice)
-hugs (it's funny... it's not the silence, or lack of communication, or lack of technology, or physical pain, or relative lack of entertainment that gets to me... it's the lack of hugs)
-my cat (I even missed her meowing and trying to climb in to my lap while I'm meditating and digging her claws in to my thigh when I ignore her)

Things I Unexpectedly Didn't Miss All That Much While On Retreat:

-my phone (except for the weather report!)
-my computer (I thought about email all of twice, I think)
-eating (whenever mealtime rolled around, I'd think, what? again? I just ate!)
-talking

Things I Missed A Little But Didn't Feel Urgent About:
-running (there will be plenty of time to run)
-playing the violin (there will be plenty of time to play the violin)
-learning new stuff (Wikipedia, anyone?)
-people (in my darker moments, I missed some people terribly, but mostly, I felt as though I was doing the retreat for them... so it was ok)

1 comment:

Photon said...

My mom's cats would always claw their way onto her lap while she was meditating. And then there was the meditation suggestion from her teacher where you stand on a chair while meditating! The cats totally freaked out at that one, both demanding to be picked up and held. My mom's arms almost couldn't support the weight of 25 pounds of cat!