Reflecting on Retreat

Beginning the New Year
walking with the ocean...

New Year Blessings for 2015 from Kaua’i.

I am making a personal commitment to post on this blog more often this year. Sometimes writing flows easily for me and other times it is a struggle, so I am choosing a regular practice. I invite you along…

I will be reflecting on some regular themes beginning with ‘retreat’. I realize I have a life long practice of ‘retreat’ and it is at the Heart of my personal wellbeing. Even during my childhood, first in Oregon then Northern California, I would wander alone into nature. I remember being content to be with and observe the growing and living things around me, happily letting my mind wander.

This desire and experience has continued all of my life. Anytime I am in need of deep healing, facing major decisions, or seeking inspiration and clarity… I retreat. Sometimes I go alone, sometimes I go with others. Most often I self-direct yet I also go on retreats facilitated by others. 

In childhood I began my desire to gather people and ‘create something’. In grade school I created the ‘Miss 67th Street Pageant’ and a neighborhood circus in my backyard. In my 20’s I taught childbirth education classes in my living room and gathered women on the Solstices and Equinoxes for celebrations and rituals to explore the sacred feminine. 

I followed these early leanings into an over 30 year career as a facilitator/teacher of groups, and while the subjects have changed, what has emerged is the modality of ‘retreat’. I know the ebb and flow of retreat, I know how I can use retreat to soothe my soul or inspire my creativity. When I facilitate retreats, I have watched thousands of people as they go on a Journey of self-discovery and transformation.

My intent with writing about retreat on this blog is three fold:

1) To deepen my own personal practice and integrate the aspects of retreat into my daily life and share this so you can do the same.

2) To continue to develop the new retreats I have simmering and offer them later this year.

3) To create and further develop a template for retreat. To share this knowledge and experience with others. I want to assist others (you) to create and offer their (your) own retreats with their (your) own unique voice.

I am writing this from my second home of Kaua’i. Trust me… I do not take for granted the amazing Blessing of the prior sentence. I am deeply Grateful for the life I am living. I also understand regular retreats to a tropical island home is not the routine for most people. This is why I want to develop the aspects of retreat and translate them into daily life. Then it becomes about attention and intention. It becomes a practice.

So what is ‘retreat’? What are the aspects of retreat? How can I use these aspects for healing and inspiration? And perhaps the most important question… Do I have to pack a bag?!

Next week I will begin to explore these questions and the five aspects of retreat. I hope you will join me! Click the video below for a bit of Kauai… The full moon January 2015. Mahaleona Point on the east shore. Enjoy…