I experienced a life-changing weekend as I co-facilitated Creativity and Connection Retreat October 17-19, 2014 on Bowen Island with Laura Mack at Xenia Retreat.
Here are some journal excerpts so you can get a small glimpse as to how powerful the experience was for me.
Recall:
PART 1 October 17, 2014 FRIDAY INTO SILENCE
PART 2 October 18. 2014 SATURDAY MORNING INTO THE LABYRINTH
PART 3 October 18, 2014 SATURDAY MIDDAY THE CYCLOPS GODDESS
PART 4 October 18, 2014 SATURDAY AFTERNOON THE SYMBOLS WAY
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PART 5 October 18, 2014 SATURDAY NIGHT: THE DANCE
After lunch, Laura took two participants through the Symbols Way process. Beautiful and profound moments and insights.
We had a labyrinth drawing break before dinner- we added the labyrinths to the Cyclops Goddess. A friend came by who lives on Bowen Island and joined us for dinner; she gave me a beautiful book as a gift from her SFU class: The Flight of the Hummingbird. Again- magical connections as the theme of the book is the power of taking small steps to achieve a big goal. “I am doing what I can.” – Dukdukdiya. Recall the LEAP OF FAITH theme this weekend!
After a lovely salmon dinner and chats about restorative justice and all that good stuff, we headed back to the yurt for the final process. I loved the experience of scribing for the participants and gathering information for them as a take away tool. Then dessert and I moved my things into the Writer’s Retreat cabin to have the experience of that cozy lodging.
At 9 PM we all returned to the yurt to dance. Intense muscle memory came back and I literally gave myself to the dance. I was stunned, relieved, at ease, grateful… Obviously, I will feel it in my joints and muscles tomorrow [I actually didn’t! My body is loose and pain free] but my soul was thankful to revisit the dancer- who is seemingly alive and well.
How could I have left her so dormant?
She wasn’t dead. She was dormant.
Like the floor of Death Valley covered in flowers after a rare rainfall. Seemingly nothing grows there until the right conditions arrive.
I allowed myself to welcome back the dancer- “dance” in the schedule was the one thing that made me hesitate more than the anticipation of darkness.
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Stay tuned for Part 6: The Closing Circle
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