The Planning of a Retreat

Dear Friends,

I hope you are enjoying summer. My 9 acres of property keeps me very busy this time of year. I find that I am often distracted from my painting. This year I am excitedly planning my return to Ireland in September.  A particularly sweet group of women has come together for this event.

I’m not sure folks are aware of the amount of planning that takes place.  I was speaking with a colleague recently about how much goes into the behind the scenes creating of these retreats.  First off, locating  ideal locations for the retreats is a job unto itself.  That involves hours of research. There is a visit ahead of the retreat to check out the accommodations and meet the vendors.  There are hours upon hours of emails back and forth with attendees for numerous reasons, fine tuning registration forms, figuring out the itineraries, and planning my own flights, transport etc.  Because my retreats are art retreats there is the teaching of art.  And, what is also quite significant is holding space for the group as a whole, feeling into everyone’s energies, making sure everyone is comfortable, attending to any problems or emergencies and more.

That being said, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it.  One of my favorite things is working with group energy to make any event as pleasurable as possible.  It makes me so happy to introduce like minded people to each other and to new adventures.  In my astrocartography (which is where one’s astrology is activated in differently planetary locations,  in my personal astrology, Ireland is a place with two feminine planets running through it which makes it a perfect spot to take women on adventures.

Perhaps you will join me there sometime.

Be well, until next time.   Melissa