Retreat Center Play Pretend
The most photogenic thing at St. David
Looks nice, amiright?
Microsoft OneDrive emailed today for the first time in a long time with memories/photos from this date in the past. This one reminded me that on September 5, 2020, I took a lockdown drive to Benson, Arizona, to check out the Holy Trinity Monastery in neighboring St. David, AZ. I had been in desperate need of a new retreat center nearby and had heard good things. Unfortunately, I found their website photos to be an inaccurate depiction of the property. It was just rundown and felt unwelcoming (even in non-Covid times), and was adjacent to a typical Arizona RV park (ugh).
On the way back to Benson on AZ-80, a rural highway between Benson and Bisbee, I spotted a building that made me turn around for another look. It is Saint Raphael in the Valley Episcopal Lutheran Church. I was so drawn to it that I parked my car, sat for a while, and walked around the property. It wasn't anything fancy, but it felt so nice.
Felt so right.
I researched it a little when I got home, and watched a few of its Zoom services (Covid times). It's a very small group with a sweet history. I talked with the Vicar who invited me for a service and a Farmer’s Market visit (one cardboard table, two farmers), and they were all just lovely.
A Google search showed that the church was built in 2012, funded with help from the AZ Diocese, and that they are already mortgage-free. They raise about $17K per year as a church, which I assume now pays their bills and then some. I couldn’t believe how realistic this felt. Even the inside was a perfect start. Doable? As in, I could do this, no? Nah…
There was also an abandoned church a little ways down the road that had a For Sale sign out front. A Google search showed that they were asking $187K for it. It needed a lot of work if it were to be a welcoming retreat center, and I worried about who might move next door (to one side was a lot with a bunch of huge bucket trucks).
Only two "nature" things in the last couple of years have made me cry. This stretch of road in Benson and another called the Loneliest Highway in New Mexico. Google puts that one nicely: One such open road is New Mexico Highway 104. It runs 110 miles west from Tucumcari to the town of Las Vegas, N.M., at the base of the Sangre de Christo mountain range. Despite its beauty and character, Highway 104 has yet to be discovered by tourists. I had to pull off that road to cry. And didn't see a car while I had my spell.
My attraction, of course, is obvious. Had the St. Rafael building or the one across the street been for sale in a different state, I think I might've put in an offer. I could live on property (in the back) and open a "physical" writers' center. Creative center. Retreat center. All of the above.
I still love these pictures, and they still make me cry.
There was another place for sale on the same highway. A ranch. $485K. Would make a perfect retreat center, too.
