Creative Juice Weekend Retreat

It's been a week now since our Creative Juice Weekend Retreat and I thought I had said it all in my last post.  But as I sat here looking at the milkweed pod above it got me thinking that it is good to change up our routines every so often.  And it's good to take time to retreat from our daily lives.  There was minimal cell phone coverage (on my phone anyway) and I loved getting away from the computer and doing something with my hands.  If I hadn't gone on this trip I would have missed understanding that milkweed pods are jam-packed-full of beautifully organized seeds with gorgeous fine white hairs that will carry them away with the slightest breeze.

And I would have missed the chance to come across this old farm machinery slowly being taken over by a country field.  Few things excite me as much as rusty, old metal machines with repetitious parts and a fading patina.  I couldn't get over the lovely blue color on this one!

As I mentioned last week we also did small craft projects like drawing on rocks.  If you missed it, Margot wrote a post with more photos, including our aluminum metal-crafting work plus Christina's amazing watercolor sketches of our trip.  It's so nice to have a small project that you can complete in under an hour while chatting with friends. 

I wanted to end this post by encouraging everyone to take a break from their routines, retreat and get outside.  And then I remembered the following quote by Edward Abbey that I think says it way better than I ever could.

“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”

-Edward Abbey

(click images to enlarge)