The following is a transcript of a Raised Catholic podcast episode. To listen to the episode, click here.

Today is episode 153: Retreat Takeaways: Trees, Dancing & Anchors

Hi friends. This week I’m continuing my short series on some of the takeaways I received from a recent retreat experience. During my time there, a few symbols kept rising up for me over and over and as I process through the weekend, I can see more clearly how God was speaking to me through them. As I mentioned in an episode a couple of weeks back, on a retreat or, really, anywhere, when the Holy Spirit is asking me to pay attention to a word or a scripture or an image or a person, I will generally feel a little ‘perk up’ in my spirit. I won’t always know why I am supposed to pay attention to this particular thing, but it is generally just a feeling of, like, “you will want to notice this,” and so I do. I’ve come to recognize that feeling and it always proves itself fruitful, so I’ve learned to be open and obedient to that noticing, even when I don’t understand it. 

Well, in today’s episode, I will focus in on how the Holy Spirit was leading me to notice a few things while on retreat: trees, dancing and anchors. Next time I’ll finish this series with the biggest of my retreat takeaways, which is all about bells, timing, and open hands. If this kind of ‘noticing’ or contemplation is an unfamiliar way for you to pray, let me just encourage you toward it, friend, because God is always speaking, and He always wants connection with us. Why wouldn’t He use the things that we see and experience to teach us and help us to draw close? Contemplating the symbols that rise up on repeat is a beautiful way to be in communion with God as we are living out our everyday lives, and it has the added benefit of making life into  kind of a fun adventure, too. So, today, let’s start with the trees.

The first reference to trees that perked up in my spirit was in a scripture reading early in the retreat, the one from the Gospel of Mark where Jesus heals a blind man by rubbing spit into his eyes. The passage reads:

“When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then He spit on the man’s eyes and placed His hands on him. “Can you see anything?” He asked.

The man looked up and said, “I can see the people, but they look like trees walking around.”

Once again Jesus placed His hands on the man’s eyes, and when he opened them his sight was restored, and he could see everything clearly.”

Well, I felt God asking me to pay attention to this idea of ‘trees walking around’, but I had no idea why. I found myself scribbling the phrase into my notebook as I tried to figure it out, and the next day I looked out the window and noticed a group of strong trees rooted in the ground. Later, one of the presenters mentioned ‘missing the forest for the trees’ and in the final talk of the weekend, someone quoted the line from the song ‘What a Wonderful World’, you know that one: “I see trees of green, red roses too, I watch them bloom for me and you, and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.” 

Now, if you’ve listened to this podcast, you know how much I love finding a deeper meaning in things, and for me, taken together, these four instances of trees feel like the progressive steps of a maturing faith. To start, Jesus touches us, and we begin to see life in a new way, but not clearly at first. As time goes on, we become more rooted and grounded in our faith, like those trees I noticed through the window. Then we start to see past our own stories to the ‘big picture’ of everything God is up to. We see the whole forest, recognize each other as brothers and sisters, and then ultimately, we experience true gratitude for the things He has made and how he is always at work for us in this wonderful world that he has made. For me, in the context of this retreat, I knew I needed to sharpen my lens to see more clearly, or have God sharpen it for me as He does over and over in my life. Honestly, I came to that weekend with so many emotions around how the church is falling short today, and about needed reforms, that I may have been missing the forest for the trees, I admit. This weekend helped me to give control of all of that back to God where it belongs, and really, that experience was right on time and such a kind gift from God.

The prevalence of anchors as a symbol in the weekend helped to center for me the question of just where I am rooting or grounding myself these days. Is it in my own efforts? My ministries and my work? Is my hope to be found in a mix of people and leaders, many of whom have proven themselves so broken and so fallible, or can I really rest in the reality and timing of God who sees all and who is always at work for the good for those who love him? This was an important reality-check for me and timely, too, because we humans sure can drift, can’t we? Getting back to basics and questioning just where and in what or in whom our hope is anchored is an important practice for all people of faith to cycle back around from time to time, and this is one of the best reasons to go on a retreat. 

Finally, for this episode anyway, there is dancing. Now, you might be asking: did you dance on this retreat? The answer is no, friend, we did not. But if you listened to episode 118: What I Learned This Lent: An Owl’s Surprising Appearance, then you will know that I now see a sighting of an owl as an invitation from God to dance. I’ll link that episode for you in the show notes in case you missed that story, but there was a night on retreat that I went to bed still very unsure of why God called me to be a part of that weekend. I opened my kindle just to read a bit to fall asleep and there it was, an owl reference just kind of out of nowhere. In it, I heard God’s gentle reassurance to me his dear daughter that the weekend, and more importantly my life is a dance. I could exhale, I could trust, and I really can let him lead. Gosh, that’s hard for me sometimes.

And you know, it’s funny. At the very end of that weekend, I did feel myself swaying to one of the songs we all sang together, and since I’ve been home from the retreat, I find I am dancing a lot more. And not just in music class where dancing is kind of my job but stopping to dance a few steps on a walk if a particularly good song comes on, or in my kitchen while cooking, or playing music for the kids waiting for a music class to begin. There was even a viral dance trend that I had been trying to learn before the weekend that I came home with my body completely knowing how to do, and that’s kind of weird, don’t you think? I guess I’m saying that life is too short not to dance, and we can put ourselves in the arms of God, who always knows the next steps. There’s freedom and fun in that that I was missing for sure.

Okay, so trees, anchors, dancing. Hmm, this might be my weirdest episode yet, but if I’ve inspired you to start to notice the symbols in your everyday life as a kind of a language that God is using to speak directly to you, His beloved, then all that silliness will have been worth it. And friend, I would love to know how he is speaking to you today, so be sure to tell me over on substack!

Thank you so much for being with me today. If you need me, you can find me on Instagram @kerrycampbellwrites, at Substack at kerrycampbellwrites.substack.com, or on my website at kerrycampbell.org. Thanks so much for rating, reviewing, subscribing and most importantly, sharing this podcast with a friend.  That really makes a difference in growing our community, so thanks. If you’d like to support this podcast financially, there are a couple of ways for you to do that in the show notes, along with some resources related to today’s episode, so do check all of that out, but before we go, let’s pray together.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

God you are always speaking, always seeking connection with us in love. Help us to see. Help us to hear. Help us to notice and tune in. For us and for our dear ones, we pray in the name of Jesus and wrapped in the mantle of our Mother Mary, amen.

Well, thanks again for listening today, friend. I’ll see you next time.

Show Notes

This week continues my short series on takeaways from a recent retreat experience. I hope it’s a blessing to you. 

If you’d like to connect with me, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠find me on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠at my website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you’d like to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠help support this podcast financially⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, there’s a way to do just that ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on my page at buymeacoffee.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Thanks for sharing, subscribing, rating, and reviewing, as this helps our community to grow.

Thanks as always to my friend, Peter Vaughan-Vail, for providing the beautiful harp music you hear in this and every episode.

Here are some resources I hope will help you to engage with this week’s topic in a deeper way for yourself:

1. Raised Catholic ep. 118 and transcript: ⁠What I Learned This Lent – An Owl’s Surprising Appearance⁠

2. Video: ⁠Anchor⁠, by Skillet (acoustic performance)

3. Song: ⁠Lord of the Dance⁠, by The Dubliners

4. Song: ⁠Evergreen⁠, by Amanda Lindsey Cook

5. Raised Catholic podcast series on Contemplation – I hope these ten episodes will help you to identify and name the pictures, words, sounds and more that God is bringing to your awareness. Find the Summer Contemplation on ⁠Apple⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠ or wherever you get your podcasts, episodes 78-88, from June 14, 2022 – September 6, 2022