What I Learned from the 2009 Retreat at Camp Westmont, PA

Like every year, this year’s retreat was very exciting to me. We all started off at 2 p.m. from Virginia after my SOL [Standards of Learning] exam. It was kind of an adventurous trip, in the sense that we got lost when we were very close to the retreat camp, but with Swami’s Grace we reached there safely. All the SSE [Sai Spiritual Education] activities were also very exciting, especially the Olympic Sai games. I played four games: the 100-meter sprint, relay races, the three-legged race, and the tug of peace.

I learned many values by playing these Sai Olympics games. Just to mention a few, I figured out that in order to win in the game, we needed to stay focused. The team needed a lot of cooperation to stay focused in the three-legged race because the team had to move at the same time and go in the same direction. One great thing I learned from this game is that to win Gods grace I need to stay focused. The partner in the game is like desire, which can take you in a different direction away from the goal, which is Swami; this game helped me to stay focused on Swami.

The ‘tug of peace’ is another game that taught me a great lesson. This game needed alot of teamwork to win the game and the great lesson I learned was that it’s very easy to win Swami’s grace if we are united.

What I really liked most about the retreat is that I got to make lots of SSE friends and I can’t wait till the next retreat.

Sairam!

~Sai Keerthana Cherukuri, 9 Years
Gr.1 SSE—South Bethesda Sai Center