Sunday, July 21, 2013

Hello from Italy!

Ciao!  We made it to Italy! I came on the lest expensive flight possible, through Moscow. Yes, Moscow. No, I did not see Edward Snowden, but I looked. I did, however find some of the most rich hot chocolate I've ever tasted in my life. Whoa! I had a great 24 hour layover in Paris on the way to Italy and will be heading back to Paris after the retreat. This is going to be a great trip!

We are starting our yoga retreat today. Kim Dastrup and I are hosting the retreat at a restored farmhouse called Ebbio, located in the Tuscan countryside. This farmhouse is 800 years old and you can tell by the almost millennium of footsteps that have worn down the stone steps. Fortunately it's completely modernized and comfortable but in a way that has kept all of its charm.

The theme of our retreat will follow Dante's La Comedia, or The Divine Comedy. This book was written in the 1300s at a time when Dante was exiled from his home in Florence and had to learn to reinvent himself in a totally different land, with different people, and different way of life. He was probably exiled to somewhere close to where we are staying because he references the castle nearby in his book.  Dante's new life had to be built not from any sort of competency, but rather from a radical form of investigative vulnerability. He had to learn to make friends with the unknown and find his power in a way that was also completely foreign to him. That's why this book has been considered a classic for all these years is because of it's invitation to be vulnerable, not because it supposes what to do.

Please join me in spirit this week as we all look at the possibility of making friends with that which we don't know and allow ourselves to grow in this way. I'll update you all with photos as much as possible on Facebook.

Ciao!
  
       
 Scott

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