Wellness Break
How often do we, as adults, get to laugh? I mean really let ourselves go, have bellyfuls of laughter and feel totally relaxed and at ease in our own bodies and have nothing to worry about? What’s more, how often do we do that with other people and I don’t mean with immediate family?
I am blessed in life to have incredible friends. Maybe that’s because I choose well or they choose me. Maybe this great Universe has a way of attracting people with similar auras and that’s how we find our soul sisters. Let’s face it, we’ve all walked into a room and taken an instant dislike to someone for no apparent reason. We have friends who introduce us to their other friends and we should click but we don’t and yet we do with some of their friends. How come? Surely if we connect with them, then they should have the same attraction to other people, who then become our friends and so it stands to reason that we should all get along. I’m digressing…I do that a lot! Anyway, back to the point. I strongly believe there is some kind of attraction. Don’t get me wrong, we will all say and do things that annoy each other and I accept those quirky parts of my friends as they accept my annoyances and quirks (like waking up at 6am and being really wide awake and raring to go) because fundamentally we are kin. We share something special. We can just “be”.
And so it has come to pass that for one (week)end in September four girlfriends and I gather to celebrate the festival of Mabon - the Autumn Equinox. This year I found the most glorious spot in West Hill called Cuckoo Down Farm. I booked us a luxury safari tent complete with hot shower, compost toilet, wood burning stove, fire pit, wood fired hot tub and views of the private woods that surrounded our home for the week. I really lucked in when I found this gorgeous place and as I needed a bit of down time I decided to book the whole week which enabled my friends to turn up whenever they freed up from work.
I had a couple of wonderful days entirely on my own. Have you ever been brave enough to do that? I’m 47 and I admit the first time I was brave enough to solo camp was last year when I decided to learn pottery. I found a pottery school in North Devon and decided I’d rather solo camp than commute each day -another blog in the making methinks. It’s very unusual in our modern lives to find ourselves completely alone. You wake up when you want, get up when you want and plan to do whatever, whenever. There’s no neighbours to say hello to, or a quick chat with the postman. The sound of silence is breathtakingly noisy. The birds wake you up, you hear scampering outside the canvas, something is tapping on the tent roof. I came across a fox on my trip to the loo. I’d light the woodburning stove, make a decaf tea and sit wrapped in a duvet, watching the rabbits running around the grass, squirrels flitting from tree to tree making the branches swish the tent roof. I quietly joined nature those first two solo mornings and I sat on the decking, looking at the misty field and beautiful East Devon tree lines waking up to another day and carried out my daily Self-Reiki. I felt totally at ease and at one with the world and any worries and woes were forgotten. I spent my time working on my website and advertising and decorating the tent in anticipation for the arrival of my dearest ones.
My best friend Julie arrived on the Tuesday afternoon, meaning we could have a couple of days to catch up. I say catch up - there aren’t many days that go by where we haven’t texted each other a million times. That’s not the same as seeing and hugging each other though is it. We filled in all the details of life and of course we had a hot tub with a bottle of bubbles. It turns out I really like building fires and I also really like hot baths which is odd as I’m not a fire sign, I’m a water sign. So on that and many occasions in the week the hot tub was running a little hot! Julie and I basked in the amazing sunshine we were blessed with in September, we swung in our hammocks, we ate healthily, drank a little and we talked about present life and reminisced on our times together over our 30+ years of friendship. Julie really is my soul sister. We know each other inside out and instinctively know what each other needs and so very often pick up the phone to call or text to find the other got there a split second earlier. Do you have someone precious like that if your life? If you do, protect them at all costs as they will protect you. Each night we fell asleep totally relaxed and content without a care in the world.
Wednesday our beautiful friend Lauren joined us for the afternoon. Although so sad that Lauren couldn’t join us for longer this year, we were so glad to have time with her. I see Lauren often as we live in the same village but Julie and Lauren only catch up in our messenger group for most of the time. To be able to all be present was a blessing. We jumped in the hot tub that sunny afternoon and I gave a meditation to align our chakras and to release any tension, worries and stress. Wow! I so want to do that again. We were literally floating in soothing hot(ish) water, letting our worries wash away. It was like floating in space and time. A truly emotional experience.
Thursday came and Julie and I went to Heron Farm for lunch. What a treat! The food here is scrumptious, the gardens are a delight and they even have a Faerie garden! They have a Vineyard and offer tours which is definitely on my wish list. Bellies full we were soon back to the tent waiting for our final friends to arrive. We are very lucky to all fit and fall into roles quite naturally. There is never a thought of someone not pulling their weight or leaving chores to others. I’ve mentioned I loved making fires (and then passed on the skill), Julie is a natural home maker and tidier (especially picking up after me!). We are very lucky to have an amazing cook in our party and so Christina arrived bring prepped foods and ingredients to truly make our mouths water! Christina was closely followed by Elise, our final member and bringer of joy and squeals. A little bit of shuffling and finding where to put things and our little safari tent was finally filled with love and laugher and the smell of an amazing curry!
It’s been a year since we were all together and after such an unsettling year, it was an incredible feeling to be sitting down at a table, being thankful for the food that the harvest and J Sainsbury had provided, sharing a glass or five and feeling at one with my beautiful friends. We were so giddy with excitement, had music playing quietly in the background and us singing (not so quietly) along. To this day “lime and the coconut” is my wake up earworm. .
So now there was four in the hot tub! There is something very special about hot-tubbing at night, laying back in the hot water, gazing up at the stars, trying to remember the names of the constellations, counting the shooting stars and waving at the ISS (International Space Station) whilst drinking fizz and eating skinny snacks. It makes you feel tiny and in awe of the world around you and grateful that we are a tiny spec in the galaxy and that we have each found each other. By 10pm the full moon made herself known by appearing over the tree tops. All hail the moon and her beauty as we floated in her moonbeams.
A big part of the weekend plans was to re-focus and relax and re-find ourselves. There’s been so much talk during the pandemic of people being furloughed and finding they didn’t’ want to return to the old jobs and found new directions. This hasn’t been the case for all of us. We all carried on working throughout the pandemic and each of my friends had to adjust to working from home. This causes an immense strain on work/life balance, there’s no escape. It’s easy for lines to blur, to realise you are still working at 7pm and you are not focusing on home life.
Tension and stress - I saw it and heard it and felt it during calls with my friends throughout the pandemic. So for a week that world didn’t exist for us. Instead we embraced meditation sessions, indulged in letting go rituals and there was crystal healing. We had a keep fit session in the open air with RockFit. Christina has been keen for me to do this for years, it was fantastic so look it up. I’m not quite sure what our neighbouring tents thought as they gazed on but we didn’t care. Throughout our stay Christina kept us fed and we kept doing the dishes.
We practiced our Mabon Ritual of Harvest Thanks on the Friday evening in the open air. A truly special ceremony with us each taking a part and giving our heartfelt thanks as well as personal gratitude for the past year, lessons learned and difficulties we survived as well as remembering our loved ones no longer with us and our blessings to our nearest and dearest. This special ceremony was of course followed by a wonderful feast.
Finally by Saturday afternoon I had given everyone an hour long Reiki healing in the outdoors with the Reiki bed set up on the decking. Wow, having the birds twittering and feeling the light autumn breeze whilst receiving Reiki was truly powerful. Gentle music softly playing and the outdoors tenderly warming us was an emotional experience for all of us, me included.
I truly hold this week(end) away as one of my cherished memories. It’s a rare thing to be so completely relaxed around others, with no body issues that we all seem to face, no treading on eggshells, no overthinking. We lived in harmony, found our rhythm, laughed, cried, sang, released demons, ate nourishing food, exercised, enjoyed the great oudoors and most importantly enjoyed being at one with each other.
I hope you all can feel as truly blessed as I do x
