FIELD OF LOVE AND ONENESS
SEMINAR IN PORTOVENERE :: A BLOG
6/4-8/4 20I8
We went by car, Mishka & I, which took 8 hours, including stops, but traffic was not heavy, unlike last year, so driving alternately, we arrived fresh - and in good time too. The hotel we stay in is 'right there', and exactly next door to the hostel where we hold the seminar, and where too, many of the participants stay.
And both are right by the shore, overlooking the sea.
Unhappily this year our hotel room was without a bath, shower only, which is a real drawback for me, but we took it and made the best of it. The sun and its warmth greeted us and we looked forward then to a warm weekend - which we got!
So off we went, the 24 of us, on Friday evening.
AND a completely new energy came to me. It came from the northwest - what the significance of that is, I've no idea, but of that, where it came from, I was clearly informed! It slipped in, this light playful energy, and there was nothing else for me to do but be with it and let it roll around the room, which it did. We left later for dinner in our usual great restaurant, all of us shiny, just from being in it, that wind of new energy...
Next day, Saturday, was again fine and warm, clear sky, very welcome too after a tough and prolonged winter and lots of not-yet-spring days and weeks.
So people poured into the town the whole weekend, as usual, but even more so since there too these warm days were for them also, the very first of spring! It's a wondrous little town there, many ancient buildings, and a real 'family' atmosphere amongst those who live and work there, and run the many shops, restaurants and cafes. They all seem quite happy with the weekend invasions!
The silence of absent noise.
Sunday morning Mishka and I went for a walk through the waterside way in the town, before the influx of visiting people, and the silence prevailing there was something else other than just quietness; the absence of the daytime sound was itself an extra silence on top.
Life is actually lived one instant at a time, again & again & again.
With us in the seminar, there were many participants who mostly have been coming to join me in Italy every year since they got their Wild Goose Names more than 30 years ago. Wherever the group is held - Bologna, Rimini, Portovenere, a few other places too - there we meet. Like many families do too. So the work works at once. It just carries on year by year. And always Vandana, always, also in the years of the Sicilian visits, there to translate (few Italians speak English) and support me and we have now a companionship connection that is so easy and harmonious. Subhuti comes regularly now - a mainstay in the Villa - bringing new kinds of t-shirts, with our own motifs, and the X10 medallions from Bali & Thailand that many people have got over the years, and wear too when they wish. The organizers of our seminars there in Portovenere are Galanda and Shamara, who do so with such love & charm, and in addition both Mishka and I regularly receive on 'the morning after' really highclass massage sessions from Galanda - who really knows about 'the body business' - hard to beat, and beautiful.
If you live your life in a really open manner then the newness never stops.
It was April - so after all, the coughing season, and so it was in the seminar room, sometimes explosive. I told them that such coughs were for me in my space like knife attacks; then I told them also of my personal experience of non-coughing, and what a teaching that was! - (the desire to cough is itself still)- when I was cough supervisor in Poona. And that did the trick!
On Sunday evening once again we went over the water to this great restaurant on the nearby island - a finishing treat always for Mishka and I from our 2 organizers. Other close people accompany us each time on this dinner trip - this time also Shintai, who had been again my assistant there along with Mishka, and his wife Mayadevi. This trip is always a very special occasion: the restaurant, with its brilliant food and service - is world-famous.
So, on Monday, packing up (lots of it!) to be done after the massages, and a goodbye coffee with our two hosts, and we were off. Another easy drive, another 8 hours, with a dinner stop, and we were back with the Boys and the Team again. And for me - soon to bed.
Anta writes: I'd like to thank you for these days full of beatitude, light and beauty. The beauty of the sky, of the colours of sunrise, of the movement of a child...the beauty of these wonderful days you have given us - with love
Mayadevi writes: In the 30th year of our relationship, still deeper...wider...higher...lighter...no words in that spaciousness and very much gratefulness for showing, and being, the way. Love forever
Next up, Music & Silence, here in the house, and then a week later the Holiday Seminar - much looked foward to by many - in Corfu. (And our two Italian hosts, among many others, come too!)
So be with us, if not possible physically, then with your hearts and souls. Remember, we are a Cosmic Family - which transcends time and needs no space!
LOVEtoYouAll
Michael
