Dear Friends!
On January 9th, I returned from what has become a biannual silent retreat. When I tell people, they ask: what do you do there? My experience on retreat is related to how I live: quiet, reflective, working most of the time alone.
Yet in the retreat, located adjacent to the organization’s ashram, I live amongst a silent but close community. We meditate and eat together. We smile as we take in the magnificent meditation gardens, the sublime chapel. The grounds offer panoramic views of the Pacific, an infinite variety of flowers, trees, birds…
Koi fish swim and occasionally jump out of their small ponds. Elegant stone benches encourage visitors to stop, sit, and breathe in the smell of saltwater while listening to the sound of small waterfalls dotting the hilly grounds.
Even the most troubled soul can find peace there.
I began retreating in January 2018 as a way to start the new year fresh and as a transcendent way to celebrate my birthday. Located in Southern California, the retreat sits in an ideal climate. For me to be in the sunshine and warmth on my big day is still something of a miracle!
But even an idyllic space cannot prevent accidents. For example, as I ran along Highway 101, I tripped, went airborne, and fell skinning hands, arms, badly bruising my left hip. No matter. I rose and continued my run to Cardiff beach, after which I submerged my hands and arms into the cool, healing waters of the pale blue Pacific.
The founder of the retreat-ashram, the Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda, teaches that we should be even-minded no matter what situations confront us. We choose to perceive events as either good or bad. He writes in his famous work, Autobiography of a Yogi, that if we can accept all experiences and learn from them without fuss, we will live far happier lives.
I had only myself to blame for my fall: I wasn’t paying close enough attention to the uneven, heavily sanded sidewalks and was grateful for the few scrapes I suffered. The sun, the meditations, the unparalleled vegetarian meals, and living unplugged for seven days more than made up for this spill. The retreat is a place where the staff and the monastics envelop you with a sense of calm and safety – what some of us experience in moments during our childhood.
I am forever grateful that such a space exists.
Renewed, I returned home to Chicago, ready for 2020, to start connecting women with their histories of improv sewing and their social and political activism.
Stay tuned for more!
Peace and joy to you all this 2020,
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