What
a journey it was. Ireland. Green. Magical. History and mythology everywhere we
looked. Thirteen of us journeyed there
in June for a sweet adventure into the heart.
Our venue was the lovely eco retreat, Ard Nahoo, set in the rolling
green hills of Letrim. It was peaceful,
serene and perfectly suited. We
meditated together in the morning, practiced yoga themed to a different ancient
Irish myth, and dined on delicious fresh local vegetarian fare. Did I mention desert? It was really good!
We
hiked up a mountain to the cairn of Queen Maeve, and canoed out to the Lake
Isle of Innishfree to recite Irish poet W.B. Yeats’ poem of the same name. We
restored ourselves with gentle yoga in the afternoons, took walks, had a seaweed
bath in Sligo and visited the magical white horses next door. The misty mornings burned off to bright sunny
days. We were lucky to have Bróga Bríomhar dancers & Riverstown CCE musicians come
one evening to perform for us and get some of us up and dancing the brush
(broom) dance! Our hosts invited us for gin and tonics before
dinner, taught us how to make Irish soda bread, carved us walking sticks for
our hike and set up a bonfire where we offered our intentions for the retreat
supported by our shared community and journey.
Yeats
wrote:
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can
understand.
For a week, we stole away from the weeping
of the world and into our own hearts where we experienced healing, peace and
community.
Below
are some comments from those who attended. But sometimes a picture is worth a thousand
words, so – here are some pictures courtesy of Michael Miller, Bea Cronin,
Adventure Gently and myself.
Hope
you can come next time! Let me know if
you’d like to.
Love,
Chaya
Here
are just a few of the comments from the group:
This
retreat has been one of the most joyful and inspiring experiences of my
life. The beauty is indescribable and
the sense of community has been enriching.
I hate to leave. I will strive to
bring this all inside and with me. Thank
you, Chaya. Clearly you put so much
thought and love into preparing for this very special retreat. - Bea C.
We
are changed because of the retreat. It was obvious the amount of time and self
you put into the prep for this retreat and it was very appreciated. We have
been processing our time at the retreat and marveling how it keeps leading to
new thoughts, perspectives and ideas totally divergent from the original. - D
& M Miller
This
was better than I could have imagined!
What a rich experience – full of nature, poetry, music, mystery and legend
and stories, yoga and meditation – a deep experience for me and transformative.
- Lois
PH
The
retreat was perfect. Location, people,
hiking, canoeing, and of course the different types of yoga classes, from
meditation to asana, restorative to yoga nidra.
It was a great experience. Thank
you, Chaya
Ronnie and Paul C.
I
had great expectations, being an alumnus of Shree and inspired by Chaya for
many happy days. This retreat so
exceeded my expectations. To start
the day with story, music, spiritual encouragement, journey through the day
surrounded by natural beauty, and ended the day with shared blessing. How do I manage in non-fairly land and ride
the white horse.
Kate G.
