Women’s Meditation & Wellness Retreat
Isle of Skye
Thursday 2 November - Sunday 5 November 2023
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Rest . Re-centre . Replenish
Settle into Winter​
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Poems
Circumventing the Busy Self
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What I need tonight is a chair -
the big upholstered kind
that sighs when I sit into it,
the kind that holds me the way
I used to imagine a cloud would hold me -
Downy, cozy, comfy, secure
and filled with light.
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I need a chair that will make me
not want to get up to do
whatever important thing
I think I must do.
Why do I always think I need
to do something? Why
is it so hard to just sit?
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So, I guess, what I really need is a chair
and a seatbelt, the kind
they have on helicopters
with five straps that meet
in the centre - though
I think those are self-release,
and we all know I will soon
feel driven to rise and rush,
no matter how cumulonimbus-ish
that chair might feel, no matter
how insistent the straps.
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So tonight what I really need
is a soft chair and a five-strap seatbelt
and a giant weighted blanket -
not heavy enough to crush me,
but one with enough gravity
that being still feels like the only real choice.
~Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (adapted)
When Women Come Together
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When women come together,
something magical happens.
It’s science, the mystical kind,
and it’s an unstoppable force,
to be reckoned with.
When women come together,
they connect,
on a deeper level,
both spiritually and cellularly.
Souls nodding in alignment, I see you.
Put women together for long enough
and their cycles will sync.
If that is not an example of the wondrous, connective majesty of womanhood,
what is my friend, what is?
When women come together,
an unseen wall is fashioned,
built from the wisdom of the breaks,
we have all endured,
and the passion to scream louder,
so that those beneath us can hear,
and need not suffer the same.
When women come together,
and tell their stories,
the good and the bad,
the power created is a tsunami of strength and intuition.
Washing us all on to better things.
A wave of majesty, wisdom and connection.
When women come together,
we are, quite frankly, intimidating.
So watch out for those will keep us apart.
They are afraid.
We are not.
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~Donna Ashworth
A Human Being
Slowly,
Gently,
Softly.
Not hurrying.
Not pushing.
Not trying
to accomplish
anything
or go anywhere.
Not trying
To be better
Stronger
Or smarter.
Not trying
to attain anything -
even enlightenment
Just being,..
Holding still
so I can find
myself.
~Kai Siedenburg
This Afternoon
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Move over, taskmaster.
Move over, critic.
This afternoon is an afternoon
for the muse,
time for saying “yes!”
to what I love
and “not now dear”
to what feels like a burden.
This afternoon, poems
come before to-do lists
songs before bills,
inspirations
before should.
This afternoon I am free
to wander
through the meadow,
my fingers training
through the tall grasses,
enjoying their gentle caress.
This afternoon I am free
to allow the beauty
of a sparrow’s trill
to stop me in my tracks.
Time to step through the door
Before I hypnotize myself
into thinking
I have to close it.
~Kai Siedenburg (adapted)
Being Present
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Breathe, relax and feel;
take time to slow down
the pace of life. Watch the
rise and fall of moods, the
birth and death of dreams.
Feelings and sensations seem
so real, yet they shift like
changing clouds, and flow
with the high tide out to sea
again. Allow it all to be, no
need to grasp or push away.
Present with each moment,
The whole of you, body, mind
and soul, opens to receive.
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~Danna Faulds
Let the Mind be the Mind
Let the mind be the mind.
Behind its restless activity,
just one layer deeper
is stillness, and beneath
even that, is an ocean
of mystery and truth.
Swim in the eternal sea
until you know yourself
to be infinity, and bring
that knowing back into
your day. Why struggle
to be what you are already?
Let the mind be the mind,
but don't bind yourself
to its limited reality.
Trust your experience of
vastness. Trust the truth
that never loses potency
or disappears in fear.
Let the mind be the mind
and identify not with
thought, but with silence.
~ Danna Faulds
Just Be
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Finally, I am slowing down.
After weeks of doing, I have
a moment to just be.
Serenity must be chosen,
the wave of relaxation washing
through me not by chance,
but choice. I consciously
give myself over to the tide
of peace that easily receives
the burdens I release.
~Danna Faulds
Being Home
Where can I soften
in this posture?
Where is the edge
between opening
and force, the line
between stretch and
too much comfort?
The mind and body
serve up a feast of
feelings, each breath
another chance to
deepen and release.
The smallest motion,
Or even just a quiet
Sigh could be all that
I require to shift my
focus from the outer
to the inner realm,
a change from feeling
lost to being home.
~Danna Faulds
Moving Forward
If you want
to move forward
skillfully,
slow down.
Breathe.
Allow
Your body
And mind
To settle…
Peacefully
Effortlessly,
Like a soft feather
Floating down
Through layers
Of busy thoughts
And actions,
Until at last
you find yourself
resting
in that deep,
still place
where you
can sense
wisdom
flowing
like an
underground river.
Sit by the river,
Drink deeply,
And your path
Will be clear.
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~Kai Siedenburg
The Most Important Thing
I am making a home inside myself. A shelter
of kindness where everything
is forgiven, everything allowed—a quiet patch
of sunlight to stretch out without hurry,
where all that has been banished
and buried is welcomed, spoken, listened to—released.
A fiercely friendly place I can claim as my very own.
I am throwing arms open
to the whole of myself—especially the fearful,
fault-finding, falling apart, unfinished parts, knowing
every seed and weed, every drop
of rain, has made the soil richer.
I will light a candle, pour a hot cup of tea, gather
around the warmth of my own blazing fire. I will howl
if I want to, knowing this flame can burn through
any perceived problem, any prescribed
perfectionism,
any lying limitation, every heavy thing.
I am making a home inside myself
where grace blooms in grand and glorious
abundance, a shelter of kindness that grows
all the truest things.
I whisper hallelujah to the friendly
sky. Watch now as I burst into blossom.
~Julia Fehrenbacher