Well, I have just returned from my Peaceful Woman (www.thepeacefulwoman.com) passage in MAUI…oh what a journey!
Maui Peaceful Woman Passage 2010
A big part of the Peaceful Woman is the concept of ‘REFLECTIONS’. It’s this idea that the things happening around you (i.e. situations, conversations, words, etc…) are ‘signs’ or reflective information for you…offering insight and reflection into your personal journey on this planet.
My big PLAN was to come home, and blog about each day systematically sharing a chronological viewpoint of my journey as if my readers were experiencing it for themselves.
In order to accomplish my ‘goal’ I took my journal with me and consistently wrote notes and ‘reflections’ along the way. Of course I took lots of pictures too. Now that I am home and settled in, I had decided that today was my day to start blogging.
I spent the morning procrastinating by cooking a big lasagne. Then, in the afternoon, I travelled by car to Reno to visit with a fellow Peaceful Woman facilitator also named Kimberly. I brought along my travel journal, a map of Maui and the itinerary of the passage we had just experienced. It was my hope to re-capture our experience through conversation and to detail our locations so my blog entries would be accurate and perfectly executed.
It was clear from our visit that both Kimberly and myself had experienced something in Maui that deeply affected our being. The Maui Passage is an EXPERIENTIAL FORMAT ONLY, which means that during our time together, the group only uses ‘REFLECTIONS’ to learn and grow…there is no group processing.
Peaceful Woman Kimberly
It was fun to meet after the fact and share new insights and awareness that had come to both of us upon returning. Just the reconnection with my ‘Passage Sistah’ ignited the island spirit and experience within me again. I was getting siked to get home and blog.
About an hour ago, I did arrive home and I set forth to begin the blogging of my journey. Much to my dismay, I had a BIG REFLECTION MOMENT. I discoverd that during our visit in Reno, I had carelessly misplaced my journal…it was GONE!
This journal not only contained the documentation of my trip, but it was my personal journal for my 42nd year (almost finished). GONE!
HOW WAS THIS A REFLECTION IN MY LIFE?
Immediately I thought of a valley we visited on the second full day of the Maui Passage. At this place, we were met by a Medicine Woman, Lomi Lomi Trainer (Transformational Massage) and accomplished Hawaiian Business Woman who shared with us some history of this special valley and guided us into a Heiau (Hawaiian Temple).
In this sacred place which looked like a small sitting area with a park bench (not so obviously sacred), our guide directed us in chanting and centering ourselves. She asked us to choose something we would like to release in the waters of the nearby flowing river.
Skeptical (due to my ongoing self-doubt re: my ability to feel peace), I thoughtfully considered what I might like to let go of. Instantly I knew, my release was to be my CRITICAL VOICE, a voice that has haunted me for decades.
That’s one voice within me that seems to show up and ruin the party of celebration in my mind. It’s the voice that says, ‘you really f-d up and you are no good’…the voice that confirms and affirms perceived failure. I call it my INNER BULLY. It’s the voice that consistently ‘rains on my parade’ and argues with my intuitive, empowered self.
In that moment, I DECIDED and I took off for the river to wash away my inner bully.
That river was cold and when I am cold, I usually feel miserable. But on this day, I felt ready and sure. As I slowly lay myself down in the river, the cold washed over me and filled me with refreshment and renewal. I laid back and submerged my head, it was a baptism of sorts. The silence under water rushed in and filled my body.
The inner bully had no place to rest. That silence and peace consumed the space. My critical voice was pushed out of me and I was clensed of this unruley character.
There were no grand chorus’s, no singing angels, just the easy flow of PEACE. I left the water and laid on a hot rock to feel the earth beneath me and BE with what was…a new sensation.
I can’t explain what happened there in the sacred valley and meandering river, but something in me shifted. I made a decision, believed and took inspired action. The result was a new feeling and an inner calm in the old, familiar chatter of my mind.
So today, I lost my notes, my journal of the last year. This REFLECTION for me was two-fold…I did not need to CONTROL this blog and the sharing of my trip, it’s unfolding as it needs to. Also, I can release this past year (literally my personal journal) and embrace all that is NOW.
I have been guided to The Peaceful Woman for a reason. The community of amazing and powerful women I had the pleasure of spending a week with are changing the planet, and I am a part of it!
The stories contained within that lost journal are just reflections in themselves and it’s time to let go…to allow PEACE to rush in and BE!
Me and Kimberly after the river...TRANSFORMED!
More to come on this incredible journey! (www.thepeacefulwoman.com)
