In one of our recent workshops, a candid, seasoned, and lovable mergers and acquisitions broker from New Jersey suggested at graduation that a normal vacation is about sightseeing, but an MEA vacation is about “soul-seeing.” He got that right. How do we discover the places and experiences that allow us to plumb the depths of our interiority and see so deeply into the eyes of another that we see ourselves? How do we learn “interior decorating” together?
This particular workshop – our largest yet – had a half-century of ages represented from 40 to 91. A room full of age-fluid folks who were curious and wise (like a good modern elder) and so open to spending time in the MEA “I See You” instead of the hospital ICU. Father Richard said that we all need to create our own “belonging systems” in our life because the ones that used to define our lives (church, family, work, local community, etc…) don’t have as much resonance as they used to.
One of my favorite memories of the week was meditating on our new meadow platform at 7 am with the horses whinnying nearby (thank you to Cookie Kinkead for this photo). To feel our human nature mirrored by other beautiful humans in the midst of nature was sublime and reminded me of Father Richard’s quote, “We must not forget who we are in relation to everyone and everything else. Our life is about relationships.”
If you want to experience our new Santa Fe campus (we initiated our second retreat center, Cottonwood, on this campus for this workshop) in relation to others, you might appreciate poet Mark Nepo’s Sept 16-21 workshop, The Power of Friendship, or to get a little spiritual taste of what we experienced this week, check out Experience Inner Alchemy Through Wisdom Healing Qigong with one of the world’s leading masters Mingtong Gu of The Chi Center, Nov 18-23. Lastly, Dacher Keltner’s Cultivating Awe workshops always fill up and his next one (at our Baja campus) is Dec 16-21.
Thank you to Richard Rohr and Michael Poffenberger for an epic week!
-Chip