Retreating

It's funny, when I think of company training trip/retreats/workshops I rarely equate that with actually getting recharged to head back out into the everyday grind of work.

Even if it's meant to build you up, equip or inspire you, it's usually a week of sitting in a hotel conference room with 100-200 of your work comrades and trudging through training sessions, workshop modules or team-building exercises. I usually am itching to get out of my seat, happy when the 10 hour day ends and need about 2 days at home to get back up to fighting strength.

I expected more of the same with the Care Network/Membership retreat that I'm currently on. The fact that I have time to blog should alone tell you this is different than what I've described above.

We arrived at one of our fellow team member's home on Lake Rabun on Monday morning and it has been rejuvenating bliss ever since. Meetings out on a screened in porch, relaxing on a dock, sitting with a breeze blowing my hair and listening to Matt Nathanson (more on him later), taking naps on the sleeping porch and actually accomplishing work and conversations that need to be had in the meantime.

Yesterday, after our sessions were over, I decided to be a kid again, go swimming in the lake and jump off the high dock. What ensued was a series of silly attempts to twist, touch my toes, and yell my head off at the sheer exhiliration of flying through the air after running off the edge of a dock. An Olympic diver I am not. I eventually dared and threatened one of my other coworkers, Beth, until she took the plunge herself. And she almost had an awful accident as her sub-conscious tried to tell her to not leave the dock at the last second, resulting in grabbing the nearest post and attempting to break her arm in the process. Evidently, it nevers gets old to bully someone into the stupid things that you're doing.

This afternoon, I took a nap on the sleeping porch (the lower screened-in porch) while a thunderstorm rolled in over the lake. This is the lovely view from my bed.

Opposite of what I was expecting, the retreat is an actual retreat from work, from the real world and I don't really want to head back tomorrow.

What a great way to close out the summer.


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Listening to: Bob Dylan - Spirit On The Water
via FoxyTunes