Lisa's way with words gave me a fun perspective on the get-together--I thought you would enjoy reading it also. And I do believe I've discovered the perfect way to keep people from putting me or my world on a pedestal--all they have to do is come over to our house. :smile:
“They’re not from a different planet, Mama.”
– North and South, the BBC adaptation
The YLCF retreat was a fellowship of like-minded ladies. We all knew that going in, I think. Our differences struck me, though. Ranging from Colorado natives to a teacher from New York, and the Midwest towns and cities in between, there was plenty to compare. A few of the ladies attending (including Natalie – remember that, girls?) even lived in Japan for a while. So we enjoyed discovering how the same values applied in different lives, different families, at different places and to different interests. Some of us are writers. Some love to clean houses. Students, teachers, wives, mothers, sisters were there. There were seamstresses and dancers and photographers. I know we each came away encouraged and refreshed. God is at work so creatively in so many lives and locations. He is awesome.
I have to report that the YLCF gathering was most unexpectedly, but actually quite reasonably, quiet. Fifteen or so ladies variously occupied shared quiet conversations about lives, families, and God’s lessons for the year. For a while it felt like twenty questions or the game where a character’s name is on your back and you run around asking questions of everyone until you figure out who you are. By Friday evening, between some sort of synchronized driving by which we left Natalie’s gracious home in a caravan and arrived at the Christian bookstore independently and from different directions, and the frigid parking lot just outside the base, we hit our stride.
For me it was fascinating to observe the humanity of our online friends. Natalie is a real human being with everyday strengths and weaknesses. She is a transparent writer, and I appreciate when she shares her struggles and triumphs, her reflective journal entries. Seeing her in action was different, though. Her dogs bark at strangers. She looks different moving: laughing, walking, thinking – than in pictures.
Maybe you had to be there, but we all dissolved into laughter when Natalie was reasoning with the security guard at the gate of the Air Force base to let all of us girls stuffed into three cars 
onto base. I think he liked us, because he was very cooperative. But each car wasn’t really communicating with the others, so we were trying to guess what would happen next, what was going on – reading lips and hand gestures and then proceeding with trial and error.
Gretchen was mentioned often. We peppered Natalie with questions about the origins of YLCF, and how she and Gretchen met. I was most surprised to hear that they’ve only been in each other’s physical presence five or six times. Yet what friends they are to each other!
The weekend was about ladies fair, traipsing through bitter cold and token snow cover. Our experiment with blooming tea was successful. Our trips to the thrift store were totally girly. And most of us more or less stayed up in one little hotel room watching the four hour miniseries, North and South.
Saturday, my friend and I chased the sun home to Colorado, not ready to surrender the day and its memories. Even that night, at midnight finally home in Colorado, the pearly glow reflected off the day-old layer of snow welcoming me from my back yard. It was the after-glow, the still illuminating remnant of the light of a lovely day.
For he satisfieth the longing soul
and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
- Psalms 107:9
- by Lisa (pictured above, on right)
Photos by Clara
In some ways it feels like my year is just beginning. Significant changes and transitions in the past months leave me at a completely different place in life than I could have imagined at the beginning of 2008. There is a wind of change sweeping through my family's life and it is bringing goodness and beauty in its wake.
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