My silent retreat is now complete. In all honesty, it was one of the most incredible experiences I have had, though I need time to process it fully. The depth of it was so huge that I can’t yet put into words what occurred. I need to give the learnings space to breath, and be slowly integrated back into day to day living. Apparently that’s a rather challenging experience unto itself. I found the “not talking” so graceful and natural, the “no eye contact” very challenging. The long hours and days blissful, and the slow walking and moving about took me a long time to adjust to. I learnt so much and came back into myself, a piece of which I had thought I had lost in London. Frankly, it just needed to be fished back out of the chaotic waters of moving countries and slipped back into place. It’s good to feel whole again. I plan to share bits and pieces over the coming month, I know a lot of you have many questions. For now, here is a story I read whilst away.
“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters – sometimes very hastily – but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew him a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim; I loved your card”.
Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it”. That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it” – Maurice Sendak
This story lit me up like a lantern. And it’s how I want to commit to life; ‘eating up’ everything that is delightful in it, just going on intuition and what the moment presents.
Written with love,
Jac x