<Gratitude>
Retreat of Dances of Universal Peace
In an unexpected twist of fate I was bumping along on a bus to Panama City to catch a flight to Bogota, Columbia. Less than a week prior i was comfortably settled in at a plant medicine center in Costa Rica with intent to live and work there for the next 3 months. Quicker than realized possible I was overcome with anger with my friend, the director of the center. Anger is an understatement I was livid. Within 24 hours of this flare I'd packed my bags and headed out. Where I would go was not my first concern.
A side note here. Someone once said to me:
" you never know someone until you fight (challenge) them "
Now landing in Bogota at 10 pm and tired I caught a cab to reach the address my friend one of the organizers had given me. Assuming I was going to a place to sleep for the night i was surprised to arrive and realize i'd be boarding a bus as soon as the whole group arrived.
(Mother's Calling : An Adventure of Surrender)
By 1am the original crew of Mother's Calling participants were cozying into the bus seats and the adventure of surrender commenced. As the morning dawned we found our selves in stand still traffic in the some of the more beautiful mountains I'd had the privilege to experience. It became known that we'd been stopped for hours and what was meant to be a 12 hour journey would now end up pushing 24.
When we arrived at the first part of journey in Cajibo at an Eco village called Atlantida it was dark, raining and cold. Coming straight from the melting hot tropics of Costa Rica not expecting to be on a Columbian adventure I was freezing and unprepared. (Drop the expectations) Generously new friends lent me warmth and i gained a tent buddy. Now in the dinning room we were fed delicious soup in which you could taste the love. Peering into the rain we could see a group dancing in singing near by. In that moment I had no desire to go join them i was ready to be curled up sleeping on a flat and still surface. Moving with the group flow we joined the singing dancing people and we had arrived at the week long Dances of Universal Peace retreat .
As we got orientated to the retreat we learned the theme was Gratitude. A woman named Lelah from Hawaii was our leader and one of the elders of the lineage.
Some transmissions we received regarding gratitude. When we are living in gratitude our happiness cannot depend on aspirations because life exists in duality. Gratitude permits us to connect to the here (hear) and now. Experiment with Gratitude. It is an interior state of being. Gratitude and happiness (joy) are intimately connected.
Expanding on the theme of Gratitude we were guided to choose a craft to engage with during the retreat, the choices ranged from weaving mochillas or beading to painting and pottery. The concept for this practice was to engage with it as moving a meditation. Each stitch a prayer. Each bead and each stroke a conscious note of gratitude. Every action a vehicle moving us individually and as one toward peace.
Adding another layer to this carefully cultivated container of theDances of Universal Peace retreat was a family from the Mamo people of the Sierra Nevadas, Columbia. The father or Hati of the family had learned from many great elders and he and his family had come to lead us through a ceremony of honoring the directions.
Our craft became part of our preparation for the ceremony. Now we each had an offering. My mochilla was a physical manifestation of the energy I directed toward gratitude and prayer.