Day 8 Karma Yoga- Retreat

Today was my first day back in school at the Tamalpa Institute, where I am now in second year taking the course on Embodied Leadership. The work here is intense, transformative, life changing. In the morning we moved to about 4 songs, tribal beats in the traditional sense, lots of drones, drum and animal sounds. My body was exhausted, ached from the high intensity dancing at Esalen. Yet when I tried to move slowly, small movements, with low tone, my body would not obey. Instead I shook and raged, up off the floor, down again. Up, down, up down. A whirlwind sampling a smorgasbord of movements, so eager to get to the next one. Our score or instructions for the movement exploration was to do a “three level check in”. This is a way of bringing awareness to how we are feeling physically, emotionally and mentally. I lay at the end of the exploration looking up at the ceiling, this unmistakable corrugated wood ceiling of the mountain home studio where this work is taught. Staring at this ceiling gives me comfort. We moved to our drawing pads after our movement exploration to see what we could find. We were to create a piece of visual art that represented in some way the experience we just had. This is what came, I call it Seeds of Judgement,


I had planned to buy a coffee for the person behind me at the coffee shop I were I go for breakfast. As it turned out I didn’t get coffee OR breakfast. Then school went for so long that all I did was come home, submit a blog entry and fell asleep. I am staying at a friends place, feeding his cat, so today this is my karma yoga. Feeding dear sweet, very pudgy “Girl Cat”.

Having this space that I am staying all to myself with a loving cat for a companion has been just the balm I have needed to rest during this intense time. “What have you received lately that you are grateful for?” is the question in 12 days journal # 65.

Thank you Jeremy. I am so grateful for this cozy little retreat spot, it feels like home.