last week i journeyed to new york's breathtaking hudson valley to attend the creative joy retreat. it was four luscious days filled with love, yoga, play, writing, photography, laughter, rest, tea, dance and stories.
i cannot conjure sufficient adjectives to give written justice to the october beauty of this space. our retreat was held at the garrison institute, an old monastery made of stone and stained glass and a thousand seeking souls that now holds programs of contemplative practice. the grounds are expansive and include woods, trails, a garden, a labyrinth, bamboo groves and an opportunity at every turn to be one
the beautiful jane lafazio, filling up her sketchbook.
tiny blooming miracles: flowers in late october.
practicing being fully present and attuned to the beauty inside and out, asking myself the question, "what do you want?" and acting on the answer without apology or explanation...these are the things that filled my days.
these two bright spirits are half of team aliveness, our small group in which we practiced witnessing, not fixing.
A is for awesome. and aliveness. and awareness. and answers.
giving fears, negativity, criticism, etc. to the minion to hold is one of many little practices i'm bringing home with me.
i find myself struggling to find the words to describe the experience. i believe it's because i allowed myself to be fully present and truly experience the retreat and the kindreds who gathered. i did not feel the need to document (either with camera or pen) every single minute with an eye toward blogging about it.
also several of my experiences were just simply beyond description.
thank you thank you beautiful brilliant women of creative joy.
thank you jen louden, marianne elliott and tracey clark for bringing us together and creating a program so deeply meaningful, fun and unexpected.
