Human bodies are not created individual. We are born of a woman in a family and village body. Inside each of us is our sense of family belonging, patriotism or group pride.
When your group is healthy, you feel healthy. This experience is IN YOUR BODY.
Who is your soul community?
Where does soul get sustenance especially if we are leaders in the field?
Have you wondered if there is a place for your body and soul?
A retreat-style community may be the answer. May 15-18 I’m coleading a retreat with the amazing Connors McConville where you can pay just room and board and make an offering of gratitude from there.
Learn more here. about this quiet, fiesty, hidden community.
Personally, I don’t go to church much these days even though Divine Connection, purpose, calling and prayer are key to my life. I have been able to customize my spiritual path by developing relationships with pastors and friends who pray for me, a spiritual director and an ongoing meditation practice thanks to InterPlay. Alanon offers room for confession and forgiveness. Life humbles me.
Some call this path “Freedom.” As a social and soul artist, American Individualism endorses this path. If I were in a different context this could be harder, though I’m not completely sure having visited rural locations.
Privilege does make distancing from difficult people possible. Global smart phones let us customize interactions while even with others in the room, stringing us somewhere between connected and wondering where we belong. This has its upside and downside when race, gender, class, gifts, body deals, disease or other differences set us apart.
Those with healthy Emotional IQ’s rock at customizing life. But if we lose a job, a child, lay dying, lose family members, grow less productive or can’t afford a smart phone, what then? And, what does it means to withdraw our health from the soul fabric of life?
With whom do I break bread? The bread of body and soul? The bread of human life?
In the Hidden Monsastery we breathe, rest, sit in silence, draw on creative inspiration, and call on holy poetry as needed when the stress of community life leaves us hungry for sustenance. The May Retreat is an affordable, magical alternative.
In InterPlay we say “never underestimate the bodies need for reassurance.” Bodily agitation and anxiety stem from lack of regular reassuring physical contact and connection. Conversely, individual health rides on access to affectionate group and ancestral health.
I want to pray, make art, celebrate everyday life with others and cultivate soul. Especially on hard days, when my higher powers wear thin or I have put my body in debt by constantly overextending, I need a motley dancing soul crew who can eat, play, pray, and talk across the table. I do not believe I am enough to reassure myself as a soulful woman. We is a soul word.
I know your soul is a priority. If you are need rest, to assure soul, to make a shrine for something, to take time for beauty in a playful rich, inspired community I would love it if you would consider coming May 15-18!
After that the next Hidden Monastery Retreat is November 12-16 outside of Santa Fe. Spaces are limted for this retreat. Reserve your space now.
Gratefully! Cynthia