Today is more or less reentry day from leading a Women’s Tretreat this past weekend at Westmoreland State Park in Virginia.  I actually got home yesterday but you know how that is – played catchup all afternoon and, really, most of today.  Oh, but it was SO worth it!

I created this retreat because I felt called, strongly, to finally fulfill this one dream that I’ve had for about 4 years.

It took a really long time to find the just right place and then no time at all for my heart to say, “Now is the time.”

I went into this retreat with a great deal of joy and anticipation – it just felt as if everything was working like it was supposed to work. And if the evaluations are any indication, everything did work like it was supposed to work!

Although small, it was acutally just the right size for the space we occupied and the women who attended.  There was a great deal of bonding and community built among these women this weekend and that is exactly what I had hoped for.

Friday afternoon arrival was 3pm at the earliest and I and a friend who rode with me got there just past.  Both of the others arrived much later because of distance and traffic and I learned my first lesson:  make sure I have everyone’s cell number so I can check in.

None of us had coordinated that!  Luckily everyone arrived safe and sound.  Friday’s meal was potluck and there was so much good food it was impossible to do anything but sample each of the offerings.

We also made Forever Flowers as a way to begin creating a Sacred Space – that is, a place or object that can remind us to stop, take a breath, drop into our body and remember that we are safe.  Here I learned my 2nd lesson:  the glue may hold through all kinds of weather but it doesn’t set well in the cold.  We made the flowers on the screened porch so we wouldn’t smell the cabin up.

Friday evening late we did our first meditation on “release” and then everyone enjoyed the stars – it is very dark in the park and the stars were magnificent – as was the new moon, symbol of new beginnings.  I wish I could say I had planned that, but I didn’t.  It was just serendipity.  “Just” in this instance being an understatement and we all know nothing happens by accident!

Saturday was a really full day and yet the pace was not hurried.  We did a morning meditation on visioning energy around some goal or choice, then spent time creating Vision Cards.  The Women received a spiral journal for Vision Journaling and card to make Vision Cards (very much like Soul Cards but a lot less involved).  Everyone chose to do the cards and *I* forgot to take any pictures as I joined in playing with one of the journals I had brought along as an example.

Lunch was avocado/lime shrimp salad and rice crackers (yum – they were a mistake, but it was a good one!) and then time to  wander out into the crisp autumn air along the shore of the Potomac, or down any of the many paths in the park to gather materials to make a Taliswoman – a reminder of the weekend and a holder of soul intentions.  That took the better part of the rest of the day and I have to say that at first when I saw how blurry the pictures of two of the finished Taliswomen are I thought – bad camera!  Then I realized, since most of the other pictures were very clear, that it was probably just the camera picking up all that energy that was moving around this very coalesced group (or maybe not, but I like that story so I think I’ll stick with it).  Then dinner, wine, a private coaching session with one of the women who requested it in her Retreat reservation,  and a final meditation where we expanded our visions and remembered how it felt to stand in our true, authentic self power.  Not power over, but power with and in community.

Sunday morning there was a quick checkin and then clean up and load out.  The Park asks folks to leave at 10am.  But we weren’t quite ready to say goodbye so we all traveled into Montross and had coffee and some more chat there before going out separate ways.

You can see all my pictures with captions here on Facebook.  I hope to gather pictures from the others too, eventually.  Enjoy!

I am so glad I came!  This has been an eye opening and life changing experience.  The things I learned about myself will change my life forever, hopefully for the better, as I was in a really dark place.  Now I can see the possibility of light and energy as long as I work toward consistently choosing it.  Pat Remington

Wish you’d been there.  It was amazing.  I’m still smiling AND I’m already planning for a Spring gathering.  Hope you can come!