A spiritual discipline I want to take from our spiritual rhythm retreat is silence and solitude. While on our retreat, we spent 6 hours in the woods of Alabama by ourselves praying, reading, journaling, and, for some of us, sleeping. I was exhausted when first arriving at camp, so I knew I would start my solitude with a nap so that I could focus on the rest of our time in the woods. I set up my hammock and fell asleep at 11:34 pm and woke up exactly an hour later at 12:34 pm.
I woke up to the sound of rustling in the leaves; my first thought was, “It’s a snake under me,” so I took a gander at what was under me, and sure enough, it was a snake. Seven inches away from my face was a four-foot snake; I watched it slither off, taking that as a sign to focus on my solitude time.
So I began by praying, inviting God into my alone time and asking him for help to keep my mind on him.
After my prayer, I read parts of the book of Luke and meditated on what the passages said, thinking of how the passage could apply to my life. After meditating on the word, I began to journal to help process what’s happened in the past 3 months of my life. I wrote about the people I’ve met, the places I’ve been to, and how much God has really been working in me. I always end my journaling with a prayer and just thank God for everything he’s doing and has done in my life, and also the fact that He wants a relationship with me.
As I was finishing up with journaling, I heard some more rustling in the leaves, so I looked up and saw a baby deer walking in front of me. It made a half circle around me before walking out of sight. I took it as a good way to end my solitude time, so I finished up my last page of journaling and met back up with my group. I want to take this discipline and really implement it into my life. I find that it creates time to process life, separating me from distractions and keeping me from missing what the Lord has to say.
I intend to continue this discipline every other day by taking a walk into the woods or even sitting on our balcony alone, just reflecting on God’s word, clearing my mind, and journaling the growth I’m seeing in myself.
Michael Giammona, Class of 2027
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