Retreat Endings--and Other Endings?

At our Mepkin Abbey retreat, we had a really wonderful ending to the retreat.  We spent some time on Sunday morning reflecting on what we had just experienced and writing a letter to ourselves.  Our leaders suggested we record three take-aways and then three practices we hoped to institute after the retreat.  They gave us envelopes to be self-addressed, and sometime in the next few months, the leaders will mail our letters.

I'd have been happy with that ending, but our leaders did something much more special.

We gathered in the chapel after lunch for our closing ritual.  We read from our letters.  And then, our retreat leaders read a letter of encouragement they'd written to each individual.  That letter will be mailed with the letters we wrote to ourselves.

Each letter showed that the leaders had been listening deeply as the retreat went along.  I was astonished at the level of detail--and at the fact that they had been able to get them all written in the short space of time.

We then did a closing prayer, with an anointing of the hands and foreheads of each individual.  Here, too, we had an unusual twist.  We each blessed the oil before the prayer began.  Each person in the circle held the vial of oil, blessed it with words given to us, and then breathed in a word that we wished to see manifest for each of us as we moved forward (for example:  "patience" or "vision for a different future" or "grace").

I left feeling blessed in a multitude of ways.

I wondered about ways I might take this kind of ending with me into other parts of my life, especially the letter writing.  Could I do this in a traditional classroom?

I used to teach over 100 students a quarter, so writing an individual letter to each one might not be feasible.  And most places I've taught would not have given me the postage.

But if a teacher offered me a letter mailed later if I provided the self-addressed, stamped envelope, I'd have done that.  And even if students didn't want a letter mailed, having students write their future selves a letter could be very meaningful.  They could seal it and open it at a future time.

I've done that with a church group.  At the beginning of a year, we wrote down what we hoped to accomplish, what our deepest yearnings were, where God might be calling us.  I kept the letters and gave them back at the end of the year.  Most people had forgotten writing them.  Most people found it meaningful to receive the letters.

I like the idea of closing rituals too, but I've spent most of my life in public institutions where I might get in trouble for any sort of ritual that seemed religious, even if I tried to make it ecumenical or secular.  That idea still calls to me.  I like the idea of an anointing of hands ritual at the beginning of a writing class.  But I'm teaching online, so that's not feasible, at least not in the way I'm thinking now.

It's time to anoint myself in a different way--time to get ready for the day.  I'm creating a small butterfly garden at school.  More on that tomorrow.