Being Quiet in body and spirit - NASavannah Recap Post

The 'story of my life' this past year has been pretty crazy. Stepping foot on four continents:

Rio de Janiero, Brazil, South America: World Youth Day with our Diocese and the Holy Father last July.
Mukumary, DR Congo, Africa: 3 weeks in Africa with my friend, Father Emmanuel, and so many new friends that I made in the journey.
Rome, Italy, Europe: On my way home from Africa I made a quick 72 hour trip to Rome to see the Eternal City.
Finally - the United States, North America: So many cities, but the notables are Denver, New York City, Atlanta, Savannah (see below), Latrobe (yeah for friends being ordained), and, of course, Charlotte (where I am most of the time).

There are so many adventures I could recap from all of these trips (seriously, I cannot believe how the Lord has blessed me with these trips this year) but this post is dedicated to the NASavannah trip I went on two weekends ago.

About a year ago I found Jen and Morgan and their fantastic Not Alone Series via some other great blogs I read. I read along all the time, but haven't ever contributed in blog form - maybe this Fall will be a different story... who knows?

Anyway, so back in February they posted about this trip and I forced (um, asked politely) if MG wanted to come with me on this crazy adventure where we make the world of the internet interact with our real lives! She said sure - and so we signed up.

Finally the day came and we headed off ... all of the other ladies have talked about the ins and outs of the trip - what we did (not a ton), what we ate (delicious food), where we stayed (an amazing old house) ... so I'm going to write about what it was like when the internet became real and how it was 'quiet' for me.

The past few months have been crazy around here in my world. At the end of May my roommate decided to move back to Chicago for a job, so that left me looking for housing. I looked for apartments - terrible. I then started to look at condos/townhouses to purchase - crazy! From the day I decided to seriously consider purchasing a house (a Friday) to the day I put in an offer (the following Wednesday) - was a crazy 5 days. The next 8 weeks have been even busier with packing, loan papers to sign, inspections to get, and so much more. I can write an idiots guide to buying a house later - but wish I would have read it before I embarked on this process. Anyway ...

So on this trip, it was so great to meet 6 sort of new to me ladies as we gathered up at this beautiful house in Savannah. We talked and talked and talked - walked around the city, went to Mass, prayed the St. Anne Novena (still waiting on confirmation of an answer), and just hung out.

The best part for me were all of the great conversations. I'm not sure anything that we said was new to all of us - it was sharing things we've already discussed many times - living the life of a single gal who's trying to live out her Catholic faith. Having them again with girls from all over the country (and one from out of the country) was confirming that we are in fact not alone. That fact makes me feel a sense of great inner peace.

Our culture can be hostile to those who are trying to live a life of faith. It's hard to find 'comfort' when we aren't on the same page. But when 8 girls (and so many more who wanted to come but cannot) get together and feel the same sense of community because they are all striving to live out God's Will, it gives me a great hope. It's also comforting knowing that I'm not on the only one who feels this way.

So my NASavannah weekend was overwhelmed by a sense of peace. I read on a hammock, experienced the concept of urban homesteading with chickens in the back yard, went to the beach (although I got a terrible sunburn), and made 6 great new friends (and kept another pretty great one).

Thanks ladies for an excellent weekend! Can't wait to 'hang out' online until the next time we can be together in person!

Check out the other ladies' posts over at Jen's!