Unpacking the Weekend
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Just me on Tuesday, March 03, 2009 9:00 AM
Have you ever had the experience after returning from a retreat or other wonderful spiritual experience when you feel completely overwhelmed by your return to the “real world”?
That hit me a bit yesterday. We drove home from Southern California Sunday afternoon, arriving in Fresno around 8:00 pm. I was exhausted from the weekend, both emotionally and physically. Part of me wanted to sit with Greg and the boys, sharing stories and relating the highlights, and the other part of me wanted nothing more than to head to bed and pull the covers over my head and sleep and remember.
In the end, I sat with them watching the LOST episode I had missed and hearing about how they spent their weekend. I ignored the stack of dishes in the sink and the laundry overflowing its way across the laundry room. I snuggled with Greg and listened to Adam’s music, not even energetic enough to dip a big toe into the ocean of email awaiting me.
I expected to wake up yesterday morning and feel ready to go, ready to take on the week ahead renewed by the extra prayer time I’d had over the weekend and by all I had learned. Wrong! Apparently, I needed yet another day to mentally “unpack” from the spiritual highs of spending four days with 40,000 Catholics.
I remember the first time I went on a retreat, in high school, returning back to school on Monday and feeling off kilter and a bit saddened. How could life just return to the “same old thing” after my classmates and I had just experienced such a wonderful retreat?
I’ve learned over the years that in the days and weeks following a retreat or conference, I need to be gentle with myself, but that I also that I need to challenge myself to not just jump back into “business as usual”.
I’m still unpacking, literally and figuratively, from the weekend. In the mean time, life goes on.
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