Retreat

Three times a year, the Public Services staff takes time to remove ourselves from the hectic and demanding pace of the library, to come aside far from the circ desk, and take a look back at what the last semester was like, a look ahead at how to best prepare for the upcoming semester. Its helpful to get your head up out of the sand and make sure everything is on track.

We meet at the library, bundle into my car and head for the east side of the city, taking three expressways to get to the Meridian Center, a complex where Roberts rents space for evening classes to meet. They have a nice suite with a kitchen and two large classrooms with internet and projection capability where we can easily get to our online documents.

The rooms are too big for the few of us, but we cozy up and begin, first with a devotional to focus on God's sovereignty, then a time of sussing out why we are all so weary. What is causing us to be heavy and how do we fix that? It is a long discussion, touching on many factors. Some of them an easy fix, others more complicated, a few that will require intervention from those above us, ones that will take time and prayer.

We look at how we are being transformed by change from one model of functionality to another, how some are transitioning easily, others dragging their feet and fighting all the way. We consider how other parts of campus interact with us, how they perceive our change. We wrestle with how to do the same work with fewer people, where are the pressure release valves. It is a long and much needed conversation. we put all the issues on the table and get everything out in the open in an honest way.

Then we go back and discuss solutions to each aspect. How do we make it better? How do we encourage others to move forward? How do we tactfully but firmly insist on assistance? Who can we enlist on our behalf? There are solutions, but we will see if they work. It sounds good on paper, but will it work?

Our heavy work completed, we move on to happier things, the lasagna dinner we will hold for our student workers, the end of year graduation dinner for students who will be leaving us. And then lunch arrives. We have promised ourselves to take full advantage of our built in break times and not multitask. It is tempting to continue discussions while munching, but we resist. Lunch is lunch, a break, a time to rest and regenerate. Let your brains idle a bit.

The morning has flown by. This has been a different sort of retreat, but a necessary piece for moving forward. We pack up our things and head back. I am hopeful that the semester will bring a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction rather than weariness and overwhelmedness. My resolve? Pray more. Be involved more in each area. Be available. Then leave the rest up to the good Lord.