This last weekend was probably one of the greatest of my entire existence. Okay that might be drastic, but at least of my sophomore year of college, so it's still up there pretty high. This weekend I went on a retreat; which retreat, you may ask? Why, it was the 2012 Seattle University Chapel Choir Retreat! Each year at around the same time, the Chapel Choir holds a retreat for all of its members at varying locations. This year's (and actually last year's too) was held at Camp Burton, which is located on Vashon Island, WA. (I think the year before last was on like Bainbridge Island or something, but I'm not really sure). Anyway, the theme was "Seeds of Change," hence the title of this post, meaning the retreat was all about change, preparing for it, reflecting on it, and celebrating it. Essentially, learning how to become a better person, and how to help others to become other people, because of change. It was amazing, literally amazing. I really can't think of another word appropriate enough to describe just how amazing it was. And I will even admit, I had really high expectations for this weekend, as last year's retreat was one of the greatest weekends of my freshman year; but they were totally exceeded. From the moment we left school at 5pm on Friday until the time we returned yesterday at 8:30pm, I was on a complete Chapel Choir high.
I first joined Chapel Choir in October of 2010, so fall quarter of my freshman year. I am not, nor have I ever been Catholic, so needless to say making the decision to join a choir that sings for the Sunday morning (and evening) Masses in the University Chapel was an interesting one. I really belong to the Church of Christ, (as that was the church I was baptized into and attend when I'm at home in Eugene), but when moving up to Seattle I had a hard time both finding a church, and then when I did, figuring out how to get there every Sunday morning. It was a little tough at the beginning, having to accept that I might not be able to attend church while at school, simply because of transportation issues and what not, but eventually, that toughness lessened - thus was the time when I first heard of Chapel Choir. I decided to go ahead and audition because hey, if I couldn't find my own church then why not use my talents to help others worship in their own way? So I did. I auditioned for our director Bill, (by singing The Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand") and by the next Sunday morning, I was singing at Mass. I still remember that first morning I attended. Honestly, it was the strangest thing I had ever witnessed. Not really strange in a bad way, but strange in that I had never experienced worshiping God in such a way. No one had out their Bibles, we sang with instrumental accompaniment rather than a cappella (like in the Church of Christ), and there was a lot of reciting, like of the Lord's Prayer and the Nicene Creed, etc. And then when the time came to take communion, I felt as though I was almost forced into it, since you know, in the Catholic church, you go up in a line to receive communion, not sit and wait for it to come around on a plate, as I was used to. Experiencing Mass definitely took some getting used to on my part, but the singing was wonderful. The hymns, and just the way people would get into the music, it was intoxicating. By the second week, I was hooked.
Now, onto the retreat. Since I've already posted a lot on the meaningfulness behind it on both Facebook and Tumblr, I don't really think I'm going to on here. I mean I will, but I'm not going to go into as great of detail, so as not to bore you all to tears. And for some reason, I am really not in the blogging mood right now. I started writing this post yesterday (Sunday), and then just left it open to finish tonight, but for some reason I just cannot get into it, and I kind of feel like everything I'm writing right now is just like asdfdfghjklhzcng. But maybe I'm just tired. Hmm...Anyway, list.
Friday
1. Arrived at Camp Burton at around 7pm (and yes, to get to Vashon Island, you have to take a ferry. For those of you who have ever been to Seattle, you would know that it is in fact surrounded by water on three sides, thus there are ferry boats that take you out to pretty much all of the surrounding islands like Vashon, Bainbridge, etc. etc.).
2. Ate dinner, which was actually quite good and normal food-wise. There was only one item that sparked my suspicion and that I, after some deep thought, refused to try, and that was rice wrapped in a grape leaf. Okay first of all, what the hell is a grape leaf? Yeah, I don't know either.
3. Ice-breaker activity. This one consisted of all 20 of us sitting in a large circle, and one at a time choosing a number at random out of a bag. Each number corresponded with a question (one that reflected on ourselves and our character), and then once we answered it, we had to pick one other person in the circle to answer as well. Needless to say there were a lot of things about people that I didn't know...
4. Group singing! I love Catholic Mass Hymns so much. They're just so beautiful and passionate and loving. Just like all of the people I get to sing them with.
I first joined Chapel Choir in October of 2010, so fall quarter of my freshman year. I am not, nor have I ever been Catholic, so needless to say making the decision to join a choir that sings for the Sunday morning (and evening) Masses in the University Chapel was an interesting one. I really belong to the Church of Christ, (as that was the church I was baptized into and attend when I'm at home in Eugene), but when moving up to Seattle I had a hard time both finding a church, and then when I did, figuring out how to get there every Sunday morning. It was a little tough at the beginning, having to accept that I might not be able to attend church while at school, simply because of transportation issues and what not, but eventually, that toughness lessened - thus was the time when I first heard of Chapel Choir. I decided to go ahead and audition because hey, if I couldn't find my own church then why not use my talents to help others worship in their own way? So I did. I auditioned for our director Bill, (by singing The Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand") and by the next Sunday morning, I was singing at Mass. I still remember that first morning I attended. Honestly, it was the strangest thing I had ever witnessed. Not really strange in a bad way, but strange in that I had never experienced worshiping God in such a way. No one had out their Bibles, we sang with instrumental accompaniment rather than a cappella (like in the Church of Christ), and there was a lot of reciting, like of the Lord's Prayer and the Nicene Creed, etc. And then when the time came to take communion, I felt as though I was almost forced into it, since you know, in the Catholic church, you go up in a line to receive communion, not sit and wait for it to come around on a plate, as I was used to. Experiencing Mass definitely took some getting used to on my part, but the singing was wonderful. The hymns, and just the way people would get into the music, it was intoxicating. By the second week, I was hooked.
Now, onto the retreat. Since I've already posted a lot on the meaningfulness behind it on both Facebook and Tumblr, I don't really think I'm going to on here. I mean I will, but I'm not going to go into as great of detail, so as not to bore you all to tears. And for some reason, I am really not in the blogging mood right now. I started writing this post yesterday (Sunday), and then just left it open to finish tonight, but for some reason I just cannot get into it, and I kind of feel like everything I'm writing right now is just like asdfdfghjklhzcng. But maybe I'm just tired. Hmm...Anyway, list.
Friday
1. Arrived at Camp Burton at around 7pm (and yes, to get to Vashon Island, you have to take a ferry. For those of you who have ever been to Seattle, you would know that it is in fact surrounded by water on three sides, thus there are ferry boats that take you out to pretty much all of the surrounding islands like Vashon, Bainbridge, etc. etc.).
2. Ate dinner, which was actually quite good and normal food-wise. There was only one item that sparked my suspicion and that I, after some deep thought, refused to try, and that was rice wrapped in a grape leaf. Okay first of all, what the hell is a grape leaf? Yeah, I don't know either.
3. Ice-breaker activity. This one consisted of all 20 of us sitting in a large circle, and one at a time choosing a number at random out of a bag. Each number corresponded with a question (one that reflected on ourselves and our character), and then once we answered it, we had to pick one other person in the circle to answer as well. Needless to say there were a lot of things about people that I didn't know...
Random group hug!
4. Group singing! I love Catholic Mass Hymns so much. They're just so beautiful and passionate and loving. Just like all of the people I get to sing them with.
L to R: Catherine, Daniella, Shelley, Ali
L to R: Ellise, Marty, Micaela, Dan, Becca
My favorite hymn.
4. Taize (tih-seh; yeah, I learned how to pronounce this the hard way) prayer service. It is seriously the most relaxing and amazing thing ever. Every year during Lent, the Seattle University Chapel provides these prayer services every Tuesday night, and they're just...ahhh. Typically during these services you sing hymns, but they're a little different from your normal Mass music; they're more relaxing and repetitive. Not really chanting, but just a different feel I guess. What we did was gather in one of the retreat rooms, light some soft candles and dim the lights, and then sing for about 30-45 mins; I think I only sang for about 15, not only because I was sick pretty much the entirety of last week and sounded like some sort of diseased wild animal, but because I was just so entranced and aflksdglfndlkhng.
5. Free time! aka. Games! aka. Scattergories! I pretty much spent this portion of the evening playing Scattergories with 10 other people. Keep in mind that by the time we even started playing the game, it was around 10pm, so basically the later it got, the more intense it got. And for those of you who don't know how to play, I will explain. First, you roll the large dice that holds each letter of the alphabet on it. Whichever letter the dice lands on is the letter you use for that round. Then, you gather your piece of scratch paper, and your list. The list comes with the game and has 11 different topics on it. For example, one topic would say "something you find in a house," and another could say "a reason for skipping school." With the letter you're supposed to use for the round, you have to list one thing that could work under each topic on the list that starts with said letter. And you can't show anyone your answers. If, at the end of the round, you and another person accidentally share the same answer, you can't get a point for that answer; you can only get a point if you are the only person with that answer. The person with the most points at the end wins. Oh, and while you're filling out the list you're timed (about a minute or two), so there's pressure, which is usually what screws people up in the long run. But it's funnnn! We played three rounds, and then once that was done I decided to wind down with coloring a picture (yes, from a Disney-themed coloring book) of the lovely Lady and the Tramp.
6. Bedtime. After heading back up to the dorms and having girly chats with pretty much all of the women in the choir, my roommates and I decided it was time for bed. And speaking of these roommates, they're the best ever, even if we were only together for one night. They entertain me.
L to R: Anh, Me, Hana
Saturday
1. Wake up call: 7:30. Oy. And just to throw this out there, my wake up call consisted not of an alarm clock, but of Anh squealing like a deranged hamster after seeing Hana hovering near her bed for a total of one second. Good times.
2. Yoga. Sort of.
3. Breakfast! The Camp Burton dining hall served amazingggggg food. That is all.
4. The first of three small group reflections: Preparation for Change. Not going to lie, these small group talks were hard, yet incredibly refreshing. What we did was start of as a big group, listening to one choir member speak of their experience in "preparing for change," how they prepared for it, how it effected them, did they think they were ready, did they learn from it, etc. Then we split off into small groups of five or six people, and then we each spoke of our own experiences. Hence the hard part. I think it's fair to say that I was not the only one who decided to make myself emotionally vulnerable and open up to people about my life, but again it was refreshing. So many brave people, so many brave stories. My story: The remarriage.
5. The second of the small group reflections: Reflection on Change. Repeat part 4, except speak of a time where you went through a change that required much personal reflection, and/or religious reflection. My story: The current applications.
6. Lunchtime = baked potatoes + my taste buds.
L to R: Ali, Shelley, Anh, Hana, Becca, Michael
7. Free time! aka. Disney music, love letters, coffee, coloring, the beach, friends, and yogurt-covered raisins.
L to R: AnneMarie, Matthew, Anh, Hana
L to R: Melissa, Daniella, Marty, Catherine
L to R: Michael, Philip, Matthew, AnneMarie
Hana
L to R: Anh, Hana
So beautiful
Canoes!
8. The third (and last) of the small group reflections. The topic: celebration of change. Holy mother the stories told during this reflection time were so profound, and just so, beautiful. Honestly I really cannot think of another way to describe them. We decided to have this reflection as a whole rather than in small groups, which I was glad about; it was nice to be around everyone, and to feel all the love everyone had to give. Becca in particular told a very meaningful story, and I will not repeat it on here, but let me just tell you it had just about everyone in tears. And Becca if you ever read this, I just want you to know that I think you're one of the strongest most amazing people I have ever met. My story for this talk: An old relationship brought to life again (after about 7-8 years) all from a simple phone call.
9. Liturgy service. The last thing before dinner. We all sat in one of the retreat rooms and sang hymns, exchanged prayers for one another, and read scriptures.
10. Dinnertime. They had these really interesting like, peanut-noodle things. Yeah, they were peanut-noodles - basically plain noodles in a peanut sauce. Quite tasty if I do say so myself.
11. Despite the many pleas, time to go back to school.
So basically, I will forever love this choir, this retreat, and being a Christian (or in this case, fake-Catholic. Ha). Now I'm about to get all mushy here, so if you're not really into religion, or you roll your eyes at it, then I discourage you from reading any further. No need to shove my religion down other people's throats.
God has brought so many amazing and wonderful people and experiences into my life, and for that I could not be more grateful to Him. Ever since I first began going to church and then was baptized into Christ, I have never felt anything less than protected and loved by a greater Being. I believe that there is a God who loves, protects, and provides for all people who choose to believe in Him; and that through Him all things are possible. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." - Philippians 4:13.
~Erin
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