Discovering Wisdom: Insights from White Feather Farm Retreat
I do not need my eyes to know I’ve arrived at White Feather Farm.
It was dusk as we rolled up the gravel driveway. Once out of the car, the fragrance every few steps kept changing. We greeted our host enthusiastically and from there, walked through the garden paths, slipped onto the trails around and through the property, eventually arriving at the sacred circle of Osage Orange trees (Maclura pomifera) with Peaches, the 17 years young cat, as our watchful guardian.
We shined a flashlight upward into the trees. Their boughs were touching, encircling over us. We continued on and arrived at the foot of Grandaddy (Eastern White) Pine (Pinus strobus). In its presence, reaching upward to the big, blue sky, I’m reminded of my promise in being on this planet. And this retreat is a way to reconnect to this promise.
What’s your promise in being?
Mark your calendars! Saturday, 30 September 2023 is the next Re/Connection Retreat at White Feather Farm. We’re so very delighted to partner again with Diane Mayer at the WFF again.
Are you curious? Let's see if it's a fit!
You will not banish upset from your life.
I said this to the group that gathered at the White Feather Farm for the first Re/Connection Retreat on 17 June 2023.
And, I continued, you wouldn't want that anyway because upset is wisdom.
Dramatic pause.
Are you breathing?
The miscommunication with a friend or when your kiddo isn’t home at the agreed upon time or waking up ‘on the wrong side of the bed’ this morning or yet again, your colleague continually interrupts you mid-sentence in meetings.
These tiny moments of reactivity are all really, really useful and why they…I mean you…are powerful! The tension is useful, pointing to effective action, do I have a request or can I completely let the issue go? This is all happening the moment you notice you’re reacting. This is the training you want because our world needs this.
I continued on, asking how many times a day are you upset, from the minor to major tensions? And over the years, the how you tense your body is math. Tension in relationships run amok, dreams unfulfilled and projects going sideways. And, reactivity in the form of grudges, worry, anger… (btw these aren’t problems). To human is messy, and in the mess, we have the possibility of instantaneous transformation when we know how we go from pain to ease. No wait and see if this shit works! I’m saying there is power, aka choice, in the midst of your upset. I see (and so do you) the cost of our upsets to not only our lives, but reactivity has riptides and a wake that affects the humans we love!
So, what’s at stake if you don’t observe tension in your body, and more importantly, how do you generate it? Without curiosity, you miss opportunities to learn to trust your symptoms (symptoms are forms of upset). Let’s not do that. Shall we investigate together about your wise body (whether it be personal or organizational upsets)?
Perhaps you have trouble sleeping or high blood pressure and likely with keen observation, all that (and more…other symptoms, too) will be less of a mystery when you practice observing the details about your body you’ve never been asked to observe. When we aren’t encouraged to be curious about the how of body tension, you’re left fearing your body, aka telling false stories about your body. The illusion persists.
Examples of tension might look like repeated work miscommunications costing you time and money. Or, you’re divorced and still resentful of your partner when you see them calling. Or, you said yes to something that you wished you hadn’t. Listening to news that leaves you sad, depressed or uninspired. Or your doctor diagnosed you with ADHD and handed you the only help they know.
Throughout the day, we talked about an upset, common and mundane that was still or mostly present in their body. And using their upset with 3 powerful skills and practices, this started to happen:
“I recently spent a Saturday with my dear Qiqong mentor Mary Morison and I want to let you know what it did for me. Most of my life I have made choices and decisions based on a process of thinking and following the voice in my head. This retreat brought a whole new possibility of where to look for the information to have these choices be authentic and more in line with who I am and what will work best for me and everyone I care about. We looked into the body and its wisdom as it shows up in feelings and body sensations. We separated out the automatic conversations and phrases that often accompany these and looked into the pure direction they can be. I am only beginning to see the power of “listening” to this. The day after a situation that could have and would have been fraught with fear, and upset transformed into one of ease and right action. I am moved and inspired and can’t get enough of these new practices!”
All who attended were very generous in their sharing, observeing their bodies shifting in real time. It became much clearer, learning from our shared humaning, how the tension is wisdom, and then transformed it into something useful.
What is true is that anyone can learn these skills. But, it's the reps that will make them habits. The new habits to replace the ones that are band-aids. And, the old habits are useful because you can choose. Old pattern body or new one?
Our time together, interacting with the land through the senses, qigong in the gardens, dogs in attendance, delicious food and beautiful surroundings…something special was being created. Even our WFF host observed this as she seamlessly moved in and out attending to her clients or farm issues as we gathered:
“You teaching, Kendall in the kitchen (which was a dose of good fortune for me), watching the two of you together…Thank you Mary for making the extraordinary effort to bring this to the farm”.
We’re so very delighted to partner again with Diane at the White Feather Farm to plan the fall retreat.
