A Spiritual Retreat : 4 Days To Think About What Are my 'Big Rocks'
When at first someone told me about doing a four-day retreat in a house held by religious people located in a small French village near Nantes, I was let's say quite dubitative.
Even though taking time for yourself, clearing your mind and listing goals are definitely good things to do if you want to improve yourself and the quality of your life, in my opinion, it was the first time I would do this in a group.
As much as I love traveling alone, reading books and writing a week-long, using these moments of silence as a spiritual retreat, I had never heard of doing this experience in a group before.
Plus, I do not intend for the moment to follow any religion as I feel good by myself.
Still, I was interested in this stage and asked my friend for more details.
He told me that the point of these days was to have time for yourself, in a place where everything is done so you don't have to worry about anything. Let's be clear, we're here just talking about simple cooking and a bed in a small room. Praising time were also organized but not mandatory.
When I thought longer about this, I realized this would certainly be a nice idea to live this experience while I'm still in my last year of engineering studies, where some of my choices may be crucial for my future orientation.
And so I decided to join my friend of this adventure.
On the day of our arrival, the astonishing mansion and the park took our breath away. It was definitely a perfect place to retire and go walking around few hours, losing yourself on the paths of the woods nearby. The hosting personal was waiting for the members of the group to arrive and start talking about what we would do during these four days. Being a little bit early, we used this time to have a quick chat with the others young people that were here. In total when everybody arrived we were 9 young students supervised by 2 adults, Catherine and Olivier.
In order to set the tone for this moment together, Olivier told us this well-known metaphoric story about the teacher and the big rocks. It goes like this:
One day this expert was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration I’m sure those students will never forget. After I share it with you, you’ll never forget it either.
As this man stood in front of the group of high-powered over-achievers he said, "Okay, time for a quiz." Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.
When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class said, "Yes." Then he said, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.
Then he smiled and asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was onto him. "Probably not," one of them answered. "Good!" he replied. And he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?"
"No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good!" Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?"
One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!"
"No," the speaker replied, "that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all."
What are the big rocks in your life? A project that you want to accomplish? Time with your loved ones? Your faith, your education, your finances? A cause? Teaching or mentoring others? Remember to put these Big Rocks in first or you’ll never get them in at all.
It was now with a clear vision and goal that we started this journey through our minds: to find our Big Rocks
/END OF THE PART ONE/
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Life Bless You!
Rob.