Another Fabulous Weekend Retreat!

Yes, we had another retreat this past weekend.  It just worked out that we had two retreats back to back!  And yes, the work behind the scenes is plentiful, but the work is ever so WORTH it! A true labor of love!  I love teaching the yoga sessions, making and serving up delicious wholesome meals, sharing this west coast paradise, sharing our home, and spending time with lovely sweet people!

We were blessed with incredible weather and so we got lots of beach time in addition to wonderful yoga sessions!  I hope you don’t mind my posting SO MANY photos.   These are just so much fun that I had to post them all!

On Saturday evening, we did shared readings.  Most everyone brought an interesting and meaningful poem or excerpt from a book to share with the others in the group.  I love the shared readings because the retreat participants  read such interesting books and I find myself discovering new authors or books that I later read.  Among the shared readings, Kate read from photographer Robert Doisneau’s Three Seconds of Eternity, a very beautiful book of black and white photographs from mid to late 1940’s Paris.   Jessie Jo read an excerpt from one of her teachers and friend, Robert Svoboda.  The book is called Aghora and the passage she read touched me deeply and is something I want to share in this blog:

“Every morning when I wake up, I do three things.  First, I remember that I’m going to die. This gives me urgency to the way I will live that day.  Second, I spend five minutes in thanksgiving to Nature for being permitted to live, to have this chance to experience, to learn, and to achieve….And there is a practice I follow every night before I go to sleep.  It is very simple, but it has helped me immensely, and it can help anyone who uses it.  It involves only three questions:  Have I lived?  Have I loved?  Have I laughed?
Have I lived?  Have I made the best use of the time provided me during that day to grow, to learn, to develop?
Have I loved?  Have I reached out to everyone I met and made them aware of the love in my heart and eased the burdens self-mistrust and self-doubt?
Have I laughed? Have I seen the humorous side of even the most painful incident?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, then it is a matter for remorse.  One more day has passed and I am another day closer to my death, and I have not exerted myself to my fullest potential. This is enough to make me work harder the next day and make amends.”

I am happy to report that over this past weekend the entire group at the retreat can give a hearty YES to all of the above questions.  I feel like we lived, loved, and laughed robustly. We embraced every moment and exerted ourselves to our fullest potential.  I believe this comes through in the photos below.

LIke I mentioned above, we had so many great photos!  Here are more images of beach fun: