Hello dear friends,
I just returned yesterday from a sublime and moderately restorative (I got from 4 – 8 hours sleep each day / night) dynamic retreat at the beach.
We were at Sandbridge Virginia, in a house which had an easy glimpse of the vast ocean, the endless horizon and the immense spacious sky.
Every other day there were dolphin sightings and on the last full day, as I was walking bare-foot through the chilly low waves of the Atlantic, a small pod of 3 dolphins swam to within 10-feet of me (and a couple other retreat ants were further up the beach watching as well). We were afraid they were about to beach themselves! They were saying good-bye to us and then they swam back out to the larger pod of frolic and playing dolphins. So so beautiful!
Another last-day first sharing… and I’ll need to provide some context so you get the hilarity of this…
Each year, on retreat, we do dream-time play from 6 to 7 pm each evening. Then we have 2 – 1-hour sits to complete the day and to chew on / integrate what we discovered in the dream sequences. In the past, the retreat leader, Janet Evergreen usually always has a dream, somewhere on retreat, of shit – literally a poop dream. And we look at these dreams from both a mundane psychological interpretation standpoint, AND we look at these dreams from an enlightened, non-dual standpoint as well. So a poop-dream is laced with purification, cleansing and composting / renewing.
This year, several people slept in the shrine room on their last night of retreat (especially if they left early – this is how several people slept separately in the shrine room on several evenings). I continued this trend… and guess who had a poop dream?
Me! I asked Janet (once we broke noble silence), if she had had her usual poop dream and she said “No.” I told her that might be because I just had one! 😀
She jokingly said, “Oh that must mean you are taking on more of a leadership role now!”
Very funny indeed – especially if you had been sitting in the sublime and tranquil stillness for 10 days…
Will share more soon!
Wishing you all Tashi Delek for this New Year! Auspicious greetings and wishes for everyone who is practicing virtue! (And may those not practicing virtue come to realize the ignorance of their ways and return to the path of merit and wisdom.)
Until soon, Big Hug,
KM
Meditation Informs Healing Facilitation 