Blog / spiritual retreat

Well, we are *really* being active participants here and it freaking rules! :-) I was having a bit of performance anxiety this morning when thinking about doing this certain ceremony today. You know we had to ask for help from the healing spirits and THANK GOODNESS they came and helped! That was fun as hell! I'll write more about it later but this is just a check in...

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So I got up really early this morning and I was actually laughing looking at the clock. I *never* get up this early unless I've got to like get a flight or something. Eventually my body just got up and I had my hot cacao/mushroom/camu camu berry drink, wrote in my journal and then got ready. This is the first day I actually made it to breakfast. There was nice fruit around so I had fruit and there was some oatmeal and granola type things so I had a few bites of the oatmeal. I think now that my body wanted an early start to ensure that I had some extra food in me for the morning's events. Since being here, I've been eating more a bit of cooked vegan along with a lot of raw vegan and it's been feeling quite right for this kind of work we are doing. And I've been hungry for each meal so I know that there is something to this journeying work taking a lot of energy to do. With each meal (and it's wild to eat 3 meals a day) I heap on the greens and veggies and fruit and then have been eating a bit of something like rice or sweet potatoes or beans or whatever. I'm not really paying too much mind to it. Just wandering the buffet table and seeing what is speaking to me. It's nice to have a buffet table with a nice little variety of vegan choices.

I'm sure it can be said that since I'm doing something so new, I'm eating some starchy things to acknowledge the emotional body and hey, that may be true. It's all good as far as I'm concerned. This is about being gentle here - at least for me - and I'm delighting in truly giving myself this time and space to savor every little thing that delights me: sage burning, writing in journal, time to be with just my thoughts, eating food that was not made by me (well not all of it), getting aware of the place around me and the people around me. It's very nice.

Anyway, lunch bell is about to ring and I'm getting on the trough line!

More later and much love,

Linda

Thought I would write a little bit of this spontaneous journey I'm on. First a little outline as to how I got here...

Halloween weekend, Matt and I went to a workshop for shamanic journeying. It was the best thing for me to do for Samhain, the time when the veils are the thinnnest. We had a great time and that Sunday I heard that there was a 2 week intensive course coming up starting this weekend. I didn't think one way or the other about this and but then kept picturing myself there. This really didn't sit well in my mind - what with starting the cafe just 3 weeks ago and so many things going on. Plus being away from the kids for 2 weeks is something I have yet to do.

But I kept seeing myself doing this so I signed up and I said I'd only go if I could find a ride. Taking the train or plane seemed like too many steps. A lovely ride showed up and so I said, "OK" I'll do it. Then there was the matter of the Health and Wellness Expo that I had signed up to do for Saturday. I wasn't sure how that was going to work out. And then Wednesday night of last week, a young woman came in with her dad asking about potential work. I took down her contact information and something in me said, "Ask her about Saturday." So I did and she said she could hand out samples at the Expo no problem. WONDERFUL!!

The journey started technically when I was really little but yesterday after dropping off food and brochures to a Health and Wellness Expo and giving/receiving hugs to a few of the fellow vendors that are there who are friends of mine. (Gotta love Vermont for this and for many other reasons.)

We set out to go south on Rt 89 to Exit 2 to meet up with my ride, Anna. On the phone she sounds exactly like the woman who painted the mural on the front of our shop. So that felt very good - like someone I knew on the phone vs. a total stranger. We met and I immediately asked to use the bathroom and then we headed south to Brooklyn - our first stop - half of the physical journey down to Virginia. We were picking up another woman to continue down.

The ride down was really very nice. Anna and I gabbed almost as if we had known each other for a long time, although it was the introductory stuff that one does. But because we're going on this 2 week shamanic intensive course, it seems easier to get right to the nitty gritty about the spiritual side of things - this is my favorite stuff to talk about. The 6 hours really flew by.

We arrived here in a really nice part of Brooklyn. I spent weekends here for 2 weeks when I dated an artist from here several years ago. I don't remember that part of Brooklyn being as nice although I loved his porch on the roof.

Right now as I write this, my traveling mates are doing a little journey before we leave. I am hearing the drumming and some singing. It's quite nice and I almost feel like I could journey right here, right now.

So that is the haps for right now. I miss my kiddos. I feel like some appendages of me is missing. They are among my favorite people in this world. I'm sure they will have a fun time and will be absolutely fine. My initial thoughts were if I would be OK without them for 2 weeks! In my heart I know I will be but I do love being with them. They are good good eggs.

I guess since this is a raw food blog, I should write that I brought a lot of food. The director of the program kept mentioning that the staff in the kitchen is not prepared to serve a raw vegan particularly, I think, because it was such a last minute thing. So I brought - get this - *TWO* coolers worth of food. I probably have enough food for a month. But that's better than not enough I guess. I didn't bring fruits and veggies - I brought cacao, herbs, ayurvedic stuff, chlorella tablets, water, bee pollen, mushroom powders, flower essences, nuts, chia seeds, some prepared food items that are easy enough to smear on a sprouted grain tortilla or piece of kale or something. Oh, I brought a LOT of seaweed. I brought some dulse/sesame seed crackers. I brought my blender (took up a decent amount of space in the cooler.) I'll have access to fruit and veggies so I think I'll be just fine. I'll be munching away on all of this and that will be divine.

OK, so that's it for this moment. Enjoy your day and I'll write more as I continue forward here. I'm stoked!