When Women Gather in Rest & Play

Women require both play and rest in order to be whole.

We ache for it. We hunger for it.

And often, instead of meeting our needs for rest and play, we feel the mounting tension in our bodies, coiled like a snake ready to strike. We find ourselves yelling at strangers in traffic, battling with our loved ones, and becoming professionally run ragged.

We lose ourselves. 

Sometimes, it’s been so long since we’ve tapped into that part of ourselves we feel permanently divorced from it, telling ourselves: I am serious about my life. I don’t need to play. I’ll sleep when I’m dead. I’m right on track. 

But these are essential elements for us and by feeding them (and often), we are able to feel so much more at home in our bodies and in our lives.

In crafting this event, I felt honored to be able to have by sweetheart at my side to tend to us and take care of our physical needs and hungers. In knowing that Cookie was going to feed us delicious food, we were able to deeply communicate with our spirits, unburdened from ordinary tasks of doing – cleaning, cooking, arranging, figuring things out, and holding it all together.

And sometimes we need that. We need to unburden ourselves so that we can deeply align with our truths and listen to the wisdom of our bodies.

Women were born to retreat, to carve out space for the possibility dwelling in the depths of our imagination, and provide ourselves a playground for our becoming.

We were born to flourish in that liminal, in-between space.

We bloom in allowance and permission and space to simply be exactly who we are.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a tender leader and a space guardian and a holder of the unholdable.

I am so grateful to have Sas as a hugely powerful and brilliant co-conspirator, and Cookie as a chef, guardian, and support system.

I am so grateful to all of the women who joined us, sharing their hearts and their stories.

Sometimes, we attend a retreat with an agenda or intention. A specific piece of work that we want to do. 

Sometimes, it is a simple desire to be whole or to allow for more space for ourselves in our daily lives.

Women gather because they must. We gather to become compassionate witnesses to one another’s unfurling. We gather to see our brightest lights reflected in one another’s eyes. We gather with the prayer that with each moment and each wish for the sacredness of our lives, we are able to realign ourselves with our hearts.

There is medicine in laughing. In jumping in the hot tub. In covering yourself with glue and glitter, as you craft yourself a new vision for your life. In the hot tears running down your face as you share the story you are ready to let go of. 

There is medicine in connecting allowing room for yourself to exist.