Retreat

This past weekend, Phil and I were on retreat with CDSP incoming students and their families at St. Dorothy's Rest - an Episcopal camp and retreat center by Sebastopol - about two hours north of Berkely. St. Dorothy's is in a forest of soaring redwoods.  Spectacular and beautiful.

On Saturday afternoon a group of us went to the Sonoma County State Park on the coast where the Russian River meets the Pacific Ocean.  The surf pounded in on one of the beaches leaving a plethora of glistening pebbles, mussels, and even a star fish.  The seagulls pick up the mussels and drop them on the beach cracking open the shells and eating the meat inside.  What's left are shells that look like butterfly wings - shimmering purple and blue inside. The waves crash over big rocks creating a stunning landscape.  Sea lions congregate at the point where the river meets the ocean.  They choose the calmer river side for their rest.

The ocean beckons me with the sheer pull of gravity.  I could stand and stare for hours - even on an overcast day which it was that day.  It is a clear reminder to me of the immensity and vastness of God's love.  It forces me into the present because it is so all consuming that you can't think of anything else.  That must be why I feel closer to God when I am at the beach.