Sark, Sark, beautiful Sark.
Dixcart
We are so lucky to have this magical island on our doorstep and I am so lucky to have such brilliantly committed and open hearted students who also appreciate this wonderful place and retreat with me again and again.
Stocks was as charming and beautiful as ever, the flowers are something else, and staff friendly and from what I was told, the food exceptional. Well done Stocks, you served us well.
Dixcart Valley was its usual mystical and ancient self, there is something about this Valley, even more so than Saints Valley in Guernsey, which I also think is special, that soothes the soul. The song of the birds, the green of the bracken, the ivy, all those trees, tall too, seeking light and the stream running through it, and at the end, the beach.
Most of us managed a swim. I went down between sessions on the Saturday morning in the wind and the rain and the waves crashing onto the beach, but I was determined, not stupid however, and immersed between sets.
Next day a group of ladies went down, one for the first time and they enjoyed a calmer swim (well done Em), and there was swimming at other spots too, with memories made, but you’ll have to ask Zoe and Charlotte about some of those. The joy of retreating in summer is the warmer seas.
It’s not just that, I certainly welcomed the extra light, early mornings with the sun rising from where I was staying off site in the northerly end of the island and time to traipse out to the brotherly point for sunset, even in the wind, there’s a destroyed dolmen that I always seek.
I love the solitude that Sark offers, and the space and connection to nature, no tarmac and the ethereal life is richer because of it, night time dolmen sitting is a joy, cycling back in the dark, stars above if lucky and the feeling as if one has the whole island to oneself.
The yoga was exceptional – I am biased of course, but I was so impressed with the open minded and indeed hearted approach of the students, embracing all the various imagery, we sat on a horse, we flew like a colourful Mexican bird with long tail feathers, we dived like a gannet, we even made playdough and rode bikes as we freed our wrists, our hands, our ankles, our spine.
Well done to Michelle, three months into a knee replacement and managing the whole retreat. But well done to all of you for giving so much of yourselves and the break throughs on the mat – so lovely to be part of the joy of things coming together, flying high in crow, bending backwards and opening the heart wide and even standing on one’s head.
Yoga has this tendency to really change things, shift the perspective, help release old movement pattens, finding softness where there was once tension and opening our mind to new ways of relating, perceiving so that limiting self-beliefs, old woundings, patterns of negative thinking and relating begin to drop away. Sometimes all it takes is a little dance on our mat, to bring joy that was limited by seriousness, and lightness that was restricted by heaviness.
Oh we had a laugh…
Most received Reiki to compliment the healing and spiritual and personal development aspect of the retreat, and there is something special for me in being able to work this closely with students, the yoga opening them up, the Reiki moving things through.
I will certainly be returning home with a spring in my step and looking forward already to our retreating on the last weekend in September, here again, at Stocks, using the beautiful Cider Room for the yoga with views of the garden, fabulous wooden floor and a real sense of space and being held by nature.
For me that’s the real benefit of any time spent on Sark, the immersion into the land, to recognise that Gaia has our back, that we are held in love and that we can rest into that, let go, cultivate greater trust and faith, hear our monkey mind more clearly and laugh at it with all its delusion and imaginings, its fears and self-depreciation, let alone its demonic tendencies.
But it’s more than that, it feeds the heart, this land, rooting us and allowing us then to expand and to blossom like the flowers in Stocks gardens. Time away from the usual routine, immersing in spiritual practice (we chanted and sang too) is a true tonic for the soul, and opens us up to new beginnings as we release the old.
Many are in a process of transformation, opening up to greater self-love so that the life they were living no longer fits, boundaries have strengthened and new opportunities are presenting themselves.
There is a wonderful quote that Charlotte kindly shared with me, which sums it up really:
“Because, before self-love becomes a liberation, it is first a burden. Well, there's the anger at who treated you poorly when you didn't know to ask for better treatment. The anger at yourself for what you've allowed. There's the grief for lost time. There's the strangling necessity to push people, things, ideas out, out, out because there's no room for them. There's the loneliness and isolation that accompanies the growth of self. There's the new boundary lines, the new range of the word no, the opening of eyes that would rather be shut, and the terrifying realization that love isn't synonymous with joy. It's synonymous with growth.
And growth isn't bliss. It never was. It was a lie that said love would be white-teethed smiles on beaches.
The pinnacle of self-love is not endless ecstasy.
It is a heartbreaking process of undoing the life your unloved self-built, brick by unworthy
brick.”
Thank you, all of you, Michelle, Charlotte, Em, Zoe, Heather, Jesyka, Ira, Joanne, Teresa, Sarah, Sue and Joan, I really appreciate your presence, commitment, love and joy, thank you, what amazing beings you are, go share that love with the world!
Thank you to Helen at Stocks too and all the other staff who helped to make our stay so memorable.
Love Emma x'
Interested in joining us on our next Sark retreat in September?
