Letters from Brookland

Dear friends,

I’m here at the Brookland Retreat Center in the Northern Tier of our diocese enjoying a “Bishop’s Week in Residence.” I’m here because I wanted to open space up to others in our diocese who might be curious about this place and to invite them to come for a day, or to spend the night (there are 8 guests beds) or to share some conversation, a hike or a meal.

I love it here at “BRC.” The setting is bucolic. The retreat house sits at the edge of a country road with a gracious hill that rises up behind it to the woods. Just across the lawn and through a stand of cedar trees is the stone chapel (1889) which is in the “miniature gothic style” with red and white marble inside and butternut woodwork fashioned with wood from a nearby forest. The stained glass is mostly from Whippel in Exeter, England, and one of the figures in the window depicts the child of the founding father of the parish, Henry Hatch Dent. There is a graveyard that stretches out from the door of the church, and a long sloping field that is used by a local farmer to grow hay. (One time last summer the farmer and his kids were here while Glenn and I were visiting and we learned everything we now know about haying and farm machinery from their 8 year old boy.)

As I made my way up here this morning – along the river through Halifax, Duncannon, and Liverpool, through Selinsgrove and Shamokin Dam, up to Lewisburg, Williamsport and up towards Mansfield- I could feel myself relaxing into a slower pace and a different rhythm. Oh, I brought plenty to “do” (my laptop, some needlework, a half-finished novel and even that small wooden spoon that I’ve been carving on and off since Covid,) but pulling into the driveway, all of that became less urgent. I was happy just to “be” here.

The house is gracious and comfortable. In the past couple of years the furniture has been replaced and there are cozy corners to sit in to read. The kitchen has every single appliance, pot and pan that you could ever want (I brought mostly pre-made food from home for convenience’s sake) and the bedrooms are very comfortable, There are four bathrooms! The porch out front hosts six big rocking chairs that whisper a quiet invitation to rest and ponder.

As I unpacked my things I looked out the window and there were 3 deer in the field behind the church. I went over to the church and read Evening Prayer at 5 PM and then cooked a chicken pot pie that traveled with me from home.

There’s one guest here tonight besides me- that’s all that you need to read the psalms responsively. She’s a friend and good companion, and tomorrow I’m hoping that we will take a hike up the hill. The last time that I was here there was a fox at the edge of the forest at the top of the hill. I’ll keep an eye out tomorrow.

But that’s tomorrow. Tonight there is yet, a book to be read and slumber to come.

Love,

Audrey