Be Here Now

Day one of yoga.  My brain is already tired. Lots to learn. 

What I Saw

The retreat center is beautiful.  Perched on the side of a mountain, it looks down on the town of Molyvos and we are directly across from the castle built to protect the town many years ago.  The grounds smell amazing with rosemary bushes growing everywhere. The salt water pool and hot tub look like a place to end the day, but tonight I am just too tired to do anything. Two days of being in airports with no sleep is catching up with me. 

We did walk down to the beach today.  The beaches are devoid of the usual summer tourist crowd, which is very nice.  The few sunbathers there were nude, which is fine, I'm just not used to it and didn't expect that to be the first thing I saw…haha.  To get to the beach, we walked through orchards with pomegranate trees, fig and olive trees and pistachios.  Resting in the shade were herds of sheep.  Each one had a bell around their neck and the soft, deep tinkling they made as the sheep grazed was hypnotic.  All in all, a very idyllic place to have a yoga retreat. 

Looking across the sea, you can almost reach out and touch Turkey.  The area of Turkey we can see was home to Plato and Aristotle, back in the day.  Surreal to think of the history in this area.  Lesvos is also the island where Agamemnon staged his troops before invading Troy.  I find myself again wishing that the trees and rocks could talk. 

What I Learned

We studied so many things today - sacred geometry, asana or movement, mantra, alchemy, too much for me to summarize in a few words.  But I can tell that one thing I need to focus on is "be here now".  When I leave my comfort zone, and this has been a big step outside my comfort zone, my natural tendency is to spend my time thinking about how to get home.  I have gotten better  at "staying" in discomfort over the last two plus years, but I also don't often step into the unknown for weeks at a time.  Three weeks seems like a long time to be here studying, but it will be gone before I know it.  I don’t want to miss anything.  So I need to work on being here now.  My house, my dog, my family and friends, all of the things that I worry about, are fine.  I am fine.  I am more than fine actually.  I need to remember that and let go. 

We also talked about the circular nature of everything.  The hero's journey if you will.  We start our journey to find what we need.   As we whittle away at what we learn and where we travel and the obstacles we encounter, we often find ourselves right back where we started.  We grew along the way, but the most important discovery is that we already had what we needed.  Fear and self-doubt lead us to believe that the answer is "out there" somewhere.  But the answer is always inside us.  I am starting to trust the process.  I can question and seek, but the answer is something I knew intuitively all along, but I didn't trust myself to know. 

I absolutely think this particular journey is what my soul needed to expand on that trust, that inner knowing.  But I will not find it if my mind is back in Denver worrying about everyone and everything that is getting along just fine without me. 

We also learned a some tarot today.  We will draw cards every morning to see what our individual energy is for the day. This morning my cards indicated change, brilliant new ideas  and situations coming into my life (as long as I can keep my impatience in check), faith and reclaiming my power.  Let go and trust.  I need to be here now.  I need to trust being here now.  I need to trust me.