6 Beaufort wind, rain, squalls, 9 degrees Celsius and a wonderful experience. With 70 we had a solo experience in the National Seashore Park. It turned out to be a great day with remarkable insights. I found myself hanging in the wind on top of a cliff.
During the debriefing remarkable stories surfaced. I was touched how a few hours in inhospitable nature can generate such deep experiences. When Jim (Marsden) and I send people off during a small ritual around ‘crossing the threshold’ they could hardly hear me because of the wind and the rain. But everybody went and most of them for the whole 4 hour period (we organized a bus for people who wanted to go back after two hours because of the circumstances). Some meditated, some walked over 15 km and some connected to nature in a completely new way to them. I was called a seagull the day before and now started to appreciate the way seagulls make use of the wind. They were swirling, diving, going up without any effort. It felt almost as if in another life I had been one. So this morning during the Social Presencing Theatre’ led by Arawana Hayashi I experimented a bit with the ‘flying’ and looking for the energy. Soon I became too self conscious and decided to land. Still remarkable.
Just received the following email…
Hi Jim & Hein,
Just needed to pause and take a moment to say, “thank you, thank you, thank you!” Though I love the ocean and the beach. I have not been an outdoor, woodsy adventure kind of girl. The experience was something really deep and special for me.Everything around the experience – the careful preparation, the reading of “The Guest House,” the walk and talk, the dance, the art, the gallery walk – combined to make an experience that I will never forget. It has opened new doors of insight, possibility and ways of being. I feel that I am a different person than when I entered the experience…