by Arthur Krieger 

As the kids say at Villa, HUMP DAYYYYYYY! The week has been fine so far, but Project SERVE had half of last week off for our fall retreat. So, of course, I wish I was still doing that.

The four-hour drive to Davis, West Virginia was beautiful, a scenic tour over meandering mountain roads. Flipping through the radio stations was surreal; I had never been in a place where country music stations outnumbered hip-hop stations 10:1. Litch-rully. We stopped at a grocery store on the Maryland side of the West Virginia border and picked up some delicious food for our two-day, two-night “camping trip”. S’mores fixins were on the shopping list.

Once we got to our cabin in Blackwater Falls State Park everything was just plain groovy. We got to know Allison Stone, the Project SERVE coordinator, in a series of quasi-formal discussions about intentional community and service. (She’s awesome.) Our jestery was incessant. (Yes, I made up the word ‘jestery’ whuchagunnado.) So was the sound of Janelle Monae’s “Q.U.E.E.N.”, and the silly dancing that accompanied it. When we weren’t reveling in the amazing community we were wandering around outside, or warming our bones by the button-controlled gas fireplace that inevitably made us all too hot. Or eating. All in all this retreat was perfect, near-heavenly in fact. Thank Goodness.

Love y’all – yours always – Arthur.