Retreat Weekend

Last weekend the organization my husband works for hosted a SE Asia regional directors retreat. Lucky for me and Ella we too were included. We stayed in a GORGEOUS resort only two hours from the city where we live. The highlight? Besides getting some time for quiet reflection and some amazing meals, I got to go scuba diving for the first time! Andrey has done it before so he sent me along for the group scuba session.

It was a bit scary at first but once I was down, I was able to stay relaxed and enjoy. Our guides told us we'd only go to about 6 meters but we ended up going to 10 or 11. Pretty good for a first dive, I guess. We started at the shore and swam out to a beautiful reef wall. What fun to get to try something new with a fun and wonderful group of people in such a beautiful setting.

Andrey took Ella on a kayak while we dove. She loved it so much she fell asleep.

 

 I think this photo is hilarious. And I wasn't even trying to look so dorky!

Ella didn't want to leave when it was time to go. She kept saying, "No home. Stay here." She got several hours of pool time every day, so I don't blame her.

 

We live in a beautiful place and I don't take it for granted. What a gift to enjoy so much of it so often. I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty when we first arrived, thinking of all my friends who work so hard and either rarely or never get to go to a place like this. While I was thinking about this I realized how I can often feel sorry for myself and find it very hard to understand why there are so many impoverished women I meet that become pregnant so easily when they don't desire to have any more children and why at the same time, it is so difficult for some of us who desire so badly to become pregnant and carry a child to do so. If I allow myself to think about that too much I can become very upset and jealous and cry about how unfair it is but I know better not to dwell on those things too much.

It occurred to me that the fact that I get to go to a place like this when the majority of the world never leaves their neighborhood or gets a vacation makes very little sense and is also very unfair (not to mention all the other privileges we enjoy that the poor don't, like having enough money for food, access to toilets, clean water, health care, etc) and if they chose to, they could legitimately complain about how unfair life is for them (and way worse off than my small infertility problem). It causes me to ask, "Why me? Why do I get to do fun things like this?"

It didn't take me long to just be thankful and enjoy the retreat. I can say that Andrey works very hard and it's really nice that his org finds such value in rest and reflection in places that are very conducive to those things. We are thankful.