Our Greatest Fear

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson, From Return to Love, Harper Collins, 1992

Let your light shine,

You never realize how stuck you are in the everyday motion of things until you take some time to break away, contemplate, & unwind. I can’t say enough good things about the few days I spent there. And how often to you get to just be in nature, journal, and enjoy scenes like this?

All the women that I met (about 24 in all) were incredibly generous of themselves, sharing their stories, their talents, & their laughter. Such an openness is rare to find so soon after people meet for the first time. This may become an annual ritual!

Along with group discussions, there was a morning session of subtle Yoga with a wonderful local teacher (from the Asheville area), a oneness blessing (also known as Deeksha) by two blessing givers, a masseuse on site who worked wonders on everyone, and our own personal organic chef to cook delicious vegan meals all around. The greens from our salads were from the organic farm on the property. All of our water came from a stream on the property as well. We had a personal concert from Christine Sat night which was fabulous…I keep telling myself that one of these days, I’ll learn to play the guitar!

Christine hosts these retreats four times a year for any women who might be interested. Check out her webpage here for more details. In the meantime, here are some images from the weekend I thought I’d share to give you a taste of what it was like…

Me & my roomie Chris:

The Thurs Night Gang (won’t forget the convertible ride!):

Our retreat group:

The property was huge & there were dozens of beautiful places you could relax. There were waterfalls leading down to a zen pond & rock garden. We had our massages in the building overlooking the pond with all the windows & doors open so you could feel like you were right there in nature!

This image reminds me of some of the temples I visited in China last year

I loved the zen rock garden & how they were able to balance them so perfectly on top of each other.

We had a number of discussions in this Pavilion and were frequently serenaded by frogs that liked to hang out at the Pavilion doors.

Inside the Pavilion

View leaving the Pavilion

Miss everyone from the retreat & hope to keep in touch! DREAM BIG!