Windridge Solitude

I went on a silent retreat recently to Windridge Solitude. It is a bit over an hour outside St Louis and it felt like a retreat on a private slice of Shaw Nature Reserve. There are trails all through the property and benches are tucked in here and there. I had a pleasant stay and highly recommend it.
http://www.windridgesolitude.org/
I had trouble viewing the website. It was like invisible ink to me and my computer. Hopefully it works for others.

Lord, make us mindful of the little things

that grow and blossom in these days

to make the world beautiful for us.

-W.E.B. Du Bois

As my eyes

search

the prairie

I feel the summer

in the spring

-Chippewa Song

What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone,

in the forest, at night, cherished by this

wonderful, unintelligible,

perfectly innocent speech,

the most comforting speech in the world,

the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges,

and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows!

Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it.

It will talk as long as it wants, this rain.

As long as it talks I am going to listen.

-Thomas Merton

And more than anything

this time has been

a gift,

an exploration

of

wonderful things.