Devo Retreat: January 23, 2015

In light of the Devo Retreat for 2016 earlier this week, I remembered I hadn't share notes and pictures from a year ago - my first all-day working off-site retreat with my department since rejoining Caramoor. I had been invited to the 2014 session, but as I was in the last weeks of my Big J tenure and that department's first week of a new leader, I didn't think it was prudent to take off to go to Caramoor.

re·treat

rəˈtrēt/ 

noun

noun: retreat; plural noun: retreats

a quiet or secluded place in which one can rest and relax;

a period of seclusion for the purposes of prayer and meditation.

This was the second year in a row that Caramoor had rented a Pond House at Bailey Farm in Ossining for the day. Apparently it is used for groups like ours quite often.

 One side of this old farm house is a bit more modern, with conference capabilities, room for yoga, etc.

It overlooks the woods, a deserted greenhouse, and other scenic vistas.

But we liked the cozier, older side of the house, with vintage touches, such as:

We always pack in a variety of brain-stimulating snacks, as we worked through the day.

Of course no department gathering would be complete without food. One of our brain-break activities was decorating birthday cupcakes for Daria whose birthday was the day of the retreat. She took lots of notes so she really deserved her cupcakes.

Each of us had leadership roles throughout the day, leading discussion groups, brainstorming, identifying department goals, values, discussing possible professional and future fun activities, etc. It was intense. (These are our "thinker" poses.)

Being the introvert that I am, I strategically intended my sessions to be more introspective. Since we had been talking all day, I led writing exercises; 1) a drawing of a colleague's name for "notes of affirmation" to be distributed throughout the upcoming months, and 2) a quiet 15-20 minute of writing time for "letters to our future selves." These latter letters were saved and then distributed the week in June that we opened the Gala.

It was fun to see the flurry of affirmation notes that initially went out in the wake of the retreat. Some people maintained the practice for a month or so, while others maintained it throughout the year. The "future selves" letters also seemed to have struck a chord. A few people chose to share their letters with the department when they then opened them in June.

(I may share mine in a latter post.)

Every retreat is different. Every different location has an ambiance which affects the output. Every session leader brings something new to the mix. Every time we have one of these, there is a different dynamic, intent, and intended outcome. It's good to have them, to learn, and grow. I just wish we able to implement all our good ideas.

If there are a few things we can share, without giving away all our company secrets:

• Write anonymous letters of affirmations to your colleagues;
• Always have chips/snacks;
• Have a goals partner and check in;
• Identify non-work "do a fun thing" activities as Festival survival incentives;
• Make professional personal goals (one of mine was to write more - with mixed results);
• and ...
• Laughing/Laughter Yoga - is RIDICULOUS and you should try it.

Hohooohoooooo HAHAHAAAAA

None of us won the PowerBall to wave our magic wands to solve the biggest issues of all, so we may need to retreat and regroup and reassess, some more and more and more.



~photos by iTouch

Auntie Advent: The Final Chapter

I was almost through all the Auntie Advent packages and realized I had no idea how to reciprocally THANK the kids.

Until I realized I couldn't, so I should just say Thank You in a series of ways that was as spread out as their gifts.

So late one night, I spent time printing out the following message and addressing one envelope for each letter, symbol and piece of punctuation, and filling it with little treats. The next morning I started the staggered mailing process

The kids were supposed to color in the letters and unscramble the following message:

15 envelopes later, I think everything finally got there, because I go this message earlier last week.

THANK YOU Christina, because I know you had the most to do with it.

Happy Anniversary Mary and Max!

In honor of a very momentous year in the now, 48-year marriage of Mary and Max, I present their annual Christmas letter.

  ~ photos by me, by iTouch in August 2015, DC area

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

December 2015 finds us back in Utah after a very rich and fulfilling time in the Washington D.C. area as missionaries at the Washington, D.C. temple. Our service in the temple was very spiritual. The people we met there will be eternal friends whom we miss daily. The "hundred-things-to-see-and-do-in-the-D.C.-are" list that we received when we arrived was not completed, but we did explore some places we had not seen in our thirty plus years on the East Coast--the Baltimore Inner Harbor and Ft. McHenry; Gettysburg; Hershey, PA; Ocean City, MD; Assateague Island and the wild ponies *, to name a few. In July we got permission to go up to Palmyra, NY to see the Pageant and then to Niagara Falls, which was on my "Bucket List." I was not disappointed. [So, you can now assume that Mary is writing this.]

The temple closed August 8 for some major renovations, a month earlier than our original release date. So, we took our time coming home with detours to NC to visit relatives and a week at Topsail Island and to CT and the Cape for a week. ** (No, I cannot get the Cape sand out of my heart.) We then headed West via Interstate 90 with Moscow, Idaho as our goal to meet our newest grand daughter [Jaime]. We made it as far as Mt. Rushmore when we got a call that brought us home by September 13.

The call was to inform us that the water pipe bringing water from the street into our utility room had burst above the shut-off valve for the house. (That valve was closed). Our neighbor who walks his dog discovered water coming from under the garage door on the afternoon walk. He called our friend who had keys. She rushed over and called our son [Jed] who drove quickly from Mesquite [Nevada] and then called us as we sat enjoying Mt. Rushmore. We told him to call the insurance company and ServiceMaster was here in an hour. We got home to torn out carpet, twenty fan/heaters roaring, and major decisions to make. Three months later, new flooring throughout and a clean house. Now, to convince Max to go on another mission!

The grandchildren grew and thrived while we were gone. Drew is nearly 11; his twin brother and sister are three. The Moscow kids are nearly ten, eight, and six, and Jaime is one. We did get to see her at ten months when we left the mess here for ten days. FaceTime is a farmily-connecting tool we love.

So, what do we do now? We started our service at the St. George temple December 3 and submitted our paperwork to serve for another year at the Home Storage Center the first of January. We need to be busy with enough time to explore our beautiful area, work off the weight we gained from all the missionary parties, and help our neighbors. We are grateful for all our blessings, you being one of them for enriching our lives. May 2016 be good to you.

Love, Max and Mary

~photo by me, November 2015

* Hey, that's on MY bucket list. No fair
** And, hey, I visited for a few days in August to help clear out a lot of stuff. A LOT of the stuff. A CAR FULL OF STUFF. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. MANY PEOPLE ARE ENJOYING ALL THE STUFF.