Click here to view a photo slideshow from the MSIA retreat in Phoenicia, NY, May of 2006.

I love to take photographs, especially in beautiful places like Phoenicia NY, where our MSIA retreat “Invitation to the Christ Within” was held May 5-7, 2006. I also enjoy writing so when it came time to send in the photos to the New Day Herald website, it seemed an easy proposal to add a few words. My offer was accepted, and I was absolutely delighted – until I realized that I had few concrete memories of the retreat.

I remember assisting, getting several back rubs, lots of smiling faces, and laying on the floor the last day of the retreat feigning a semi conscious state during John Morton’s sharing. More of what came to me as I thought of the retreat was the sense of Spirit that was all around: the sound of the water flowing in the stream parting to each side of the white Buddha statue, the colorful flags on the walls of the room that seemed to move with their own breeze, and the early sunlight behind the facilitator’s chair that seemed to glow, begging for the Traveler to join us.

Yes, there were processes where we had to move chairs and give out tissues but what was experienced was the grace, the release, and