that's what i dreaded?

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Originally uploaded by alannka.

this weekend was my congregation's women's retreat. i got there nearly halfway through it, since friday night i wanted to stay behind and hear david dolan speak (which was worth it).

to be honest i was dreading the weekend. last year i was just... shy, i guess, and not in a great frame of mind for the retreat weekend. if not for a wonderful phone conversation i had with a friend after that weekend a year ago, i think i might have broken down entirely.

so this year i was wishing i could just go off in the woods somewhere by myself. i did not want a weekend full of having to be social.

however, there was a hot tub. and my friends happen to be wonderful. so the social aspect of the weekend turned out to be quite a positive one.

the musical aspect was even better. on saturday night we had a musical worship time that turned into a small, accidental session of "prophetic music" (bascially it's a way of expressing G-d's word -- both Biblical and revealed -- through music. see 1 samuel 10 and and 1 chronicles 25. i will elaborate someday.) and in the end i was just lying on the floor, totally exhausted, with nilsa's djembe on top of me so that i could smack it from time to time. many of the ladies there had never really heard me sing or play before, and so i had lots of folks come up to me that night and the next day to say they were impressed by my voice, drumming fervour, &c. my thighs are sore from gripping the drums. i am so out of shape.

playing and singing with nilsa is not to be matched. she is as enthusaistic in both her hands and her voice as i, and more talented in both as well. i hope we get to do that sort of thing together more.

after the drumming and singing workout i met some of the girls in the hot tub, where we acted silly until it closed, then more silliness in our 4-person room. sunday was more drumming and singing. on the way home we took photos with the cow.