Breathing in, I am a flower. . .

I apologize for the delay. . .
I recently spent a week in France for a summer retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay (sp?))- well, I didn't spend the entire time with him but I did feel his presence everywhere. www.plumvillage.org, but you already have that. Anyway, one word: magical.

Inspirational.
Life altering.
Ok, thrrrreeeee words. Yea, that about says it all. For those of you who won't bother or have the time to look it up, I'll give a synopsis.

It is a solid week (minus one lazy day) of meditating, dharma talks from Thay and company, mindfulness to the fullest extent, nature, bamboo, consultations if needed, fantastic Vietnamese food, your own family, incredibly beautiful Lotus pond, incredibly-lived, kind happy women & sisters that were just amazing to be with, generousity . . I could go on.

There are 4 villages, two of which are designated for men/women and couples respectively. Translation provided for everyone - 6 languages at all times. The environment in itself is completely remote, in the country and conducive for relaxing and taking in a long healthy breath. You just can't help but feel it. It lies about an hour's train ride east of Bordeaux. My village had it's own very large vegitable garden and since I was on the "garden project", I got to work in it about 1.5 hours a day as we learned to do working meditation. It was so great to see our food on the table come from this very garden. Everything. Truly wonderful experience. The eggplants were so rich and bountiful. Interesting looking squash but they looked like zucchini's a bit - just round. And an interesting herb that I think is a VN vegi - it had purple and green leaves but had such a wonderful flavor for many of their dishes.

We ate VN food the entire time - I was in heaven especially not having to cook any of it. So good and yummy. Things I've never had before. Prolly the most interesting thing for me was all the different consistencies that Tofu can take on. They made spagetti the first night (the only subsequent American dish) - I could swear it was meat and I thought, isn't this supposed to be vegitarian? Tasted, felt, looked just like ground meat. Well, the food was excellent and was reason enough to go especially for the price. BTW, the made their own Tofu. And we had some frozen ice cream thing made from beans, Mung beans - so healthy and yummy and delicious. I don't eat nearly this healthy and I should.

The teachings of the Buddha are extremely worth delving into for me. I have alot yet to learn. I especially found interesting his concept of birth & death and that these words are not true reality. The topic of my week there was Ancestors and how our ancestors always live on through us, their children. Powerful concepts. I would rather not recite these beliefs but just merely comment that I find them fascinating and want to learn more. I wish I had the time to tel you all about them but I don't think it's necessary. Thay has written 80 books and there are many more on the subject.

The week for me was, quite honestly, a little overwhelming. These concepts are a bit new for me and fresh. I found it difficult to just accept everything as green grass. It is probably natural to be a little skeptical at first. I need time to read and learn and swallow what just happened to me. I've even had thoughts of going back. However, what did work for me was the simple idea of breathing. Yes, we all do it but how often do we notice that we are breathing - that we are alive. May sound funny to some of you but it's so true. It's the same concept as "smell the roses", etc. Very powerful and after my week, I absolutely felt grounded and had more inner peace. Maintaining it is another story.