IMG_1613Are y’all curious? If not, skip to another post, I won’t take it personally if you don’t want to read about the minutae of my weekend. But if so…

Thursday:
•    Arrived; silent dinner (pasta, pesto veggies, salad)
•    Group gathering. I cried. Lit individual candles and placed in chapel. I put mine at the base of a leafless tree hung with gold origami cranes.
•    Read.
•    Slept for 10 hours, very deeply.

Friday:
•    Woke up. Went to yoga/meditation.
•    Silent breakfast. (veggie frittata, few spoons of oatmeal, fruit, coffee)
•    Made bed.
•    30 minute walk/run. Injuries bothering me. (shin splint, groin pain)
•    Morning gathering
•    Read poems on various walls, copied many down. Spent time in art room but didn’t do art.
•    Spent one hour in straw bale hermitage. Meditated. Cried.
•    Silent Lunch (turkey, tuna, salad, fruit)
•    Walk/ran one hour. Injuries slightly better but not great.
•    Read.
•    Napped.
•    Showered.
•    Silent dinner: chicken, Israeli couscous, salad. Wrestled with apple crisp with whipped cream. Didn’t eat it.
•    Walk, 30 minutes. Slowly.
•    Evening gathering: meditation, elm dance in courtyard garden: slow, mournful circle dance from Russia, composed to mourn death of forests after Chernobyl
•    Slept, but woke from 2-4am

Saturday:
•    Slept through yoga/meditation. Made bed.
•    Silent breakfast. (hard boiled egg, chicken apple sausage, honeydew, brown rice cereal)
•    Very slow walk
•    Morning gathering – re connection with nature, Wendy Johnson book
•    Silent gardening: planted 3 kinds of lettuce, kale. My first garden experience.
•    Read.
•    Very short nap.
•    Silent lunch: chicken broth with toppings (chicken, green onions, carrot shreds, lime), salad. No cookies 4 me.
•    Another slow walk.
•    Silent art: made ‘treasure boxes’ out of matchboxes, homemade paper, shells, leaves
•    Read.
•    Massage. Melted onto table. Injuries completely gone.
•    Showered.
•    Silent dinner: poached salmon, sugar snap peas, salad. Passed up the potatoes and the wine (only night it was offered). Did not pass up poppyseed cake with whipped cream. Meant to have one bite; ate the whole piece. Delicious.
•    Slow walk, 20 minutes.
•    Tested blood sugar, worried about cake. Ecstatic it was 109. (yay walk!!)
•    Gathering in pillow room. Gave thanks to H & S for 23 years of nurturing us. Cried more. Another elm dance, then meditation in chapel.
•    Wrote.
•    Slept.

Sunday:
•    Woke.
•    Breakfast: scrambled egg, toast, peanut butter, grapefruit.
•    Changed bed linens. Packed.
•    Morning gathering
•    Went to art room and hand-copied several pages from Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings
•    Event closing
•    NONsilent lunch! Made some new friends. Beautiful cheeses, salad, lentil soup, crackers.
•    Drove home. Stopped at Spirit Rock bookstore on the way to buy One Bowl and Mindful Eating.