Inspiration from the Fall Retreat 2019

I arrived back home this afternoon feeling so blessed after my yearly retreat at Sleeping Lady Resor this weekend with my dear friend and co-teacher, Melina Meza. This retreat always lands at the right time each year, as an invitation to slow down and listen to my intuition and my body before the hectic pace of the holiday season kicks in. I also love the opportunity to reconnect with returning folks, excited to find out what the past year has held for them, and always look forward to meeting the new attendees each year. The richness of the weekend involves movement, meditation and a great deal of poetry. Here are the poems I used for inspiration this year:

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Release
by Danna Faulds
I lay myself down
on the welcoming
ground, the earth's
spine becoming mine.
Peace seeps into
heavy limbs and
slows my heartbeat
to the pace of 
nature. I take refuge 
in the quiet, and let my burdens go,
one by one, until
the earth and I
both float in the
same vast and
holy silence.

Some Fill With Each Good Rain
by Hafiz
There are different wells within your heart.
Some fill with each good rain,
Others are far too deep for that.
In one well
You have just a few precious cups of water,
That “love” is literally something of yourself,
It can grow as slow as a diamond
If it is lost.
Your love
Should never be offered to the mouth of a
Stranger,
Only to someone
Who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife
Then weave them into a blanket
To protect you.
There are different wells within us.
Some fill with each good rain,
Others are far, far too deep
For that.
The Weaver & The Loom
by Dana Faulds
Sit here for a bit. Place yourself
​outside the frenzied pace of life.
Slow down long enough to
appreciate birds in flight, water
drops like prisms in the grass and
countless shades of green. Step
off the fast track and listen to the
sound of breath and birdsong. Take
a moment to just be, and in the being,
know the whole of this creation,
mystery and madness, passion and
profanity, know it all as one, stunning
tapestry. Sit still and the thin line
between sacred and profane simply
fades away. There is nothing then
to reconcile. All the disparate threads
are woven on the loom of life. Sit here
for a bit and your unique place in the
pattern becomes clear. Take the still
point with you when it’s time to walk
away. Make the choice to see affinity,
to watch the picture taking shape as
thread joins thread. Dare to be the
weaver and the loom, creator and
creation, the sower and the sown.
In a moment of stillness, all that
came before is seen as one. 

Sangha
by Danna Faulds
Teach me what I cannot learn alone.
Let us share what we know, and what
we cannot fathom. Speak to me of
mysteries, and let us never lie 
to one another.
May our fierce and tender longing 
fuel the fire in our souls. When we
stand side by side, let us dare to focus
our desire on the truth. May we be
reminders, each for the other, that
the path of transformation passes
through the flames.
To take one step is courageous;
to stay on the path day after day,
choosing the unknown, and facing
yet another fear, that is nothing
short of grace.