Experiencing Life Creatively: Journey of Inner Healing
June 2014 Retreat
Group photo: Marie, Helana, Neil, Wendy, Percy, Deidre, Joy and Leela
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PILGRIM’S PRAYER:
Go, begin the day of your new birth, you are on a journey. Go, an encounter awaits you. With whom? Perhaps with your own self. Go, your steps will be your words, this journey your song, your fatigue your prayer, and your silence will at last speak. Go, with others, but remain with yourself. Go, although your Spirit may not know where your feet will carry your heart. Go, another is coming to meet you and is searching for you, so that you may find him in the sanctuary at the end of the pilgrimage in the sanctuary deep inside your heart He is your peace, he is your joy. Go, it is the Lord who goes with you. |
What is important about the journey home is that we begin it. That beginning calls for courage. And staying with the journey also calls for courage. God does the transforming - all we have to do is show up and start walking. We are divinely encoded within for our magnificence. As much as an apple seed will grow into an apple tree, and a rose seed will grow into a rose bush, we have the Divine seed within us and it is our destiny to grow into Divine Beings. We have imaginal cells within us to enable us to be all that we are encoded to be. For too long, we have been caterpillars. The time has come to see our magnificence, our Divine Being and to become that! Looking at a photograph of yourself as a child, you can see that expectant little face: smiling, happy to be here, hopeful and trusting that life contains so much adventure and exciting possibilities. We sensed that we could grow up and become anything that we wanted to be. What caused us to shut down? Slowly we begin the journey of being confined and conditioned and conformed, till we loose touch with the innate potential that we were born with. The time has come to return to innocence, child-like delight and trust. To reclaim that beautiful being that we were and still are. To be and become who we were created to be.
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Chorus:
Though I may not know the answers I can finally say I am free. If the questions led me here then I am who I was born to be ... |
When I was a child
I could see the wind in the trees and I heard a song in the breeze it was there singing out my name. But I'm not a girl anymore I've known the taste of defeat I've finally grown to believe it will all come around again. Chorus ... So here am I, open arms and ready to stand I've got the world in my hands And it feels like my turn to fly. Chorus ... When I was a child there were flowers that bloomed in the night unafraid to take in the light unashamed to have braved the dark. Chorus ... I AM WHO I WAS BORN TO BE |
We looked at the power of LOVE to heal and transform. As one of the retreatants switched her car on to come to the workshop the next day, the song was playing: LOVE CHANGES EVERYTHING! If you do not love yourself totally, wholly and fully in the way that you deserve, somewhere along the way you learned not to. You can unlearn it. Start being kind to yourself now:
The time will come when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome
and say: sit here, eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self,
give wine, give bread, give back your heart to itself,
to the stranger who has loved you
all your live, whom you have ignored for another,
to the stranger who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
[Poem by Derek Walcott]
We looked at the necessity of FORGIVENESS:
Forgiveness is a choice that we make. We may not feel like forgiving, but we know it is the right thing to do.
Forgive and you will be forgiven. Judge not and you will not be judged.
It helps to draw a distinction between the person and their acts.
Forgiveness doesn't make the other person right - it makes you free.
We need to forgive ourselves, and others, and God.
We looked at HEALING into wholeness:
In the infinity of Life where I am, all is perfect, whole and complete. I live in harmony and balance with everyone and everything. Deep at the center of my being, there is an infinite well of love. I allow this love to flow to the surface. It fills my heart, my body, my mind, my consciousness, my entire being. It radiates out from me in all directions and returns to me multiplied. The more love I give, the more I have to give. The supply is endless. To love and allow myself to be loved makes me feel good. I am a Be-loved Child of the Universe, and the Universe lovingly takes care of me. All is well in my world.
"You are a child of the Universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should." [Desiderata by Max Ehrmann]
We PRAYED:
Let us keep our hearts focused
Let us find kindness to negate resentment
Let us show generosity to dissolve possessiveness
Let us stand steady in the face of pain rather than live in fear
Let us experience co-operation rather than revenge
Let us be free from clinging and a narrow mind
Let us express compassion rather than indifference
So that our hearts connect with the realities of others
So that we stay true to an undying principle
Of treating others as we wish to be treated
So that awareness and respect pervade
Our thoughts, words, and actions
To live in such a way brings dignity and nobility to life
And reveals true freedom of being.
We had a MAGNIFICENT RETREAT!
Some comments from retreatants:
NEIL: The retreat was inter-active and well planned. It helped me to recognize my own potential.
HELANA: It has been an awakening process, and I realized that I have to deal with issues of self-worth, self-love and forgiveness. I cannot describe the impact you had in my life! I feel more grateful to and for life. I feel more aware of my space (the inside and out). I thank you so very much. I found joy and peace during the days I spent with you.PERCY: The retreat reminded me and re-assured me that I am such a Divine Being! The Almighty requires that we be the Light that we are, so that we can reveal the Light of God to others. I was touched to be in such an amazing group of people. Thank you for being what you are and what you were for the past few days. I can't stop thinking how rejuvenated I am to have met you. May the Almighty bless all of us.
WENDY: The soft, gentle, loving approach with such loving beings was just what I needed to help me come out of the wilderness.
MARIE: I received so many new insights and understandings during the retreat.
DEIRDRE: I am speechless!
The time will come when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome
and say: sit here, eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self,
give wine, give bread, give back your heart to itself,
to the stranger who has loved you
all your live, whom you have ignored for another,
to the stranger who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
[Poem by Derek Walcott]
We looked at the necessity of FORGIVENESS:
Forgiveness is a choice that we make. We may not feel like forgiving, but we know it is the right thing to do.
Forgive and you will be forgiven. Judge not and you will not be judged.
It helps to draw a distinction between the person and their acts.
Forgiveness doesn't make the other person right - it makes you free.
We need to forgive ourselves, and others, and God.
We looked at HEALING into wholeness:
In the infinity of Life where I am, all is perfect, whole and complete. I live in harmony and balance with everyone and everything. Deep at the center of my being, there is an infinite well of love. I allow this love to flow to the surface. It fills my heart, my body, my mind, my consciousness, my entire being. It radiates out from me in all directions and returns to me multiplied. The more love I give, the more I have to give. The supply is endless. To love and allow myself to be loved makes me feel good. I am a Be-loved Child of the Universe, and the Universe lovingly takes care of me. All is well in my world.
"You are a child of the Universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should." [Desiderata by Max Ehrmann]
We PRAYED:
Let us keep our hearts focused
Let us find kindness to negate resentment
Let us show generosity to dissolve possessiveness
Let us stand steady in the face of pain rather than live in fear
Let us experience co-operation rather than revenge
Let us be free from clinging and a narrow mind
Let us express compassion rather than indifference
So that our hearts connect with the realities of others
So that we stay true to an undying principle
Of treating others as we wish to be treated
So that awareness and respect pervade
Our thoughts, words, and actions
To live in such a way brings dignity and nobility to life
And reveals true freedom of being.
We had a MAGNIFICENT RETREAT!
Some comments from retreatants:
NEIL: The retreat was inter-active and well planned. It helped me to recognize my own potential.
HELANA: It has been an awakening process, and I realized that I have to deal with issues of self-worth, self-love and forgiveness. I cannot describe the impact you had in my life! I feel more grateful to and for life. I feel more aware of my space (the inside and out). I thank you so very much. I found joy and peace during the days I spent with you.PERCY: The retreat reminded me and re-assured me that I am such a Divine Being! The Almighty requires that we be the Light that we are, so that we can reveal the Light of God to others. I was touched to be in such an amazing group of people. Thank you for being what you are and what you were for the past few days. I can't stop thinking how rejuvenated I am to have met you. May the Almighty bless all of us.
WENDY: The soft, gentle, loving approach with such loving beings was just what I needed to help me come out of the wilderness.
MARIE: I received so many new insights and understandings during the retreat.
DEIRDRE: I am speechless!