i’m writing this post 5 days before it’s going live; but as this goes live, i will have just started (last night) a 3-night, 4-day silent retreat. i’ve had a rhythm, over the past three years, of doing these quarterly, and have found them so critical to my mental, emotional, and spiritual health. but, i’m overdue, by a couple months, to keep my “quarterly” time frame. so i am SO ready for this.

i saw this awesome video a couple weeks ago. it’s a beautiful and insightful collection of drawings (really, cartoons) representing the 40 days jesus spent in the wilderness. (illustrations by a British illustrator named Simon Smith, and put to an Explosions In The Sky song.) when i first saw this video, it made me think of my upcoming silent retreat; so i saved it to post on this day. i’m no jesus, and i hope i don’t get confronted by the devil in the same way; but i recognized some of the emotions and moods as stuff i experience on these retreats.

(ht to mark riddle for the video)