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In returning from our 3rd annual Tolkien Retreat, we asked our travelers to share reflections from their week away together. Pacifica’s Tolkien Retreat invites our students and staff to experience an imaginative world at the beautiful grounds of Lake Leonard Reserve—as they take on the challenge of reading the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy together.

Written by faculty member, Lindsey Knight

A typical Tolkien morning begins with the rising of the sun, fresh coffee, warm pastries, and worship as a group. Usually, we settle into our reading spots quickly after the morning time, but this particular day, we had a lighter load of reading, so Mr. Dobbins exhorted whoever was interested to join him on a walk up a hill. The students immediately scrambled to their rooms to grab sweaters, boots, gloves, and handwarmers, and a solid contingent of our group began to assemble on the front porch. We walked through slushy mud along the perimeter of the lake until our path began to diverge, rise and take us through denser forest. Pines lined our path, and as we ascended up the hill, we began to anticipate what was at the top. 

One at a time, each student joined Mr. Dobbins at the summit, and one by one, I could hear gasps and cheers. The top of the hill was fully covered in a blanket of snow, and far beyond, the sky was full of a brilliant white mist that hid everything behind it. 

Before I had time to take in the view, a snowball flew past me. The scene before me turned into the most joyous, laughter-filled, snowball fight I have seen. Framed by a backdrop of white, the students couldn’t contain their excitement as they continued to run up the next hill–  sliding down it, picking up snow, throwing it, and gathering more to make the beloved (but unfortunately not long-lived) Snow-do the snowman.

I set up my foldable chair and took out my book. Between page turns, I watched the students until the sun was above me in the sky. As I sat there, the mist began to slowly fade, and the scene behind the clouds was revealed. All I could see were pine trees for miles beyond our little hill. We felt like characters in Tolkien's Middle Earth–far from home, far from “normal,” but surrounded by fellowship. The laughter on the hill quieted as the students began to walk back to the cabin. They left in small groups to warm up by the fire until I was left alone. 

When people ask “How was the Tolkien Retreat?” I am often at a loss for words. “We walked up a hill,” I could say. Describing the beauty of these moments requires attention to the details. These details were only apparent to our senses because there was nothing to pull our attention away from what was before us in every present moment. We could spend the morning walking up a hill and experience true joy. I look for these moments as I return to my routines– knowing that the peace of the Lord is found in Him when I choose to turn my vision to hills eternal.

Written by Dominic Ureno '(26)

The Tolkien Retreat is freedom and rest. There is no other way to describe it. As someone who has never understood “rest” very well, this was a big shock to me my first year. Everywhere I looked, I saw so many of my friends at peace: comfortably reading, baking, or even writing music, and I didn’t know what to do with it. Ironically, this stressed me out. In order to find peace, I tried to copy what everyone else was doing. I didn’t sit back and let God direct me to His rest through the retreat, itself. 

However, my second year, I came back more free to let the retreat fill me with God's rest. God had humbled me a lot in between my two retreats to show me how much I needed the rest, and that to rest, I needed to surrender. When I arrived back, I quickly dived into the text I loved so much, while surrendering myself to the ebbs and flows of the trip. By fully submitting to the retreat, I found myself spontaneously drawn into the greatest rest I've ever felt. And it wasn't all the same kind of rest, either. Some of it carried the same energy as my friends during my first year, like rowing on the lake in the snow, having a marvelous sip of tea at the top of a mountain, or baking Lembas bread with Mr. Rinaldi. But other moments of rest were different, such as the chaos of bowling with the guys, clapping along to "Onion John" on closing night, or having a snowball fight outside.

All of these “restful” moments were made possible by the nature of the retreat. There were no reputations to uphold, no other tasks to accomplish besides reading, and not even any clocks to be subservient to. This environment was the perfect space in which to be free and in which to rest, and it is absolutely a cornerstone memory from my past 4 years of Pacifica experiences.

However, this tale is just what God worked for me over my time on the retreat. God may have something completely different in store for you, should you make the choice to go. The retreat is truly His space to work, and He will use it all for His great glory and for your great good. Just surrender into it, dive wholeheartedly into the reading, and let God direct the rest of your steps, and you’ll be in for the experience of a lifetime.

Written by faculty member, Luke Bailey

"Losing track of time is not something we frequently have an opportunity to do. Our lives primarily revolve around keeping track of time. Busy schedules are filled with commitments and activities, even sometimes when we are supposed to be on vacation. Some of this is necessary and a part of the life that we live. However, it is refreshing and life-giving to have moments, days, weekends where there is a chance to lose track of the time. This was the opportunity we had on the Tolkien Retreat.

It was one of the most meaningful parts of the experience for me and I witnessed the impact that it had on the students as well. Following the retreat this has clung stubbornly to me, as I return to normal life. Our days were not marked by minutes or hours, but instead by pages read, meals eaten, and conversations shared. The urge to check the time slowly faded after the first few days. The students would frequently ask on the drive up. And then on the first day they would ask less frequently, then less on the second day. Until eventually, they just stopped asking.

Time is a gift and frequently we think about this gift in utilitarian terms, "productivity," "spent," "used." Often we do not think about the gift of time as something to be inhabited. On the Tolkien Retreat, we all had a chance to experience time in this different way. For me, it led to a deep sense of rest and peace during the week. There were meaningful parallels between this experience of time and several passages in the Lord of the Rings. It was time perhaps as the Fellowship felt it while they were in Rivendell or Lothlorien, an elvish sense of time.

Returning to normal life, my hope for myself and for the students is that we are all able to have moments where we lose track of time. That we would let go of our desire to constantly check and keep track of time. That this would be another way to sabbath, to rest."