Organizing and co-teaching the annual Teen Mindfulness Retreat at Lama Foundation might be the most important thing I do. We just completed our long weekend together and I am overflowing with gratitude. I wanted to share a glimpse of these magical days with you in a few words.
For 3 nights we sleep under the high desert stars
ringing bells at 6am
to watch the sunrise in silence
sipping warm tea
as pastels paint the sky
We move our bodies
with hip circles and chaturangas
and listen to the robins sing from the ponderosas
We circle around long wooden tables
with homemade pizza, lentil curry and apple pie 3 times a day
and sing prayers of thanks to Lama spring
We walk through the aspen grove
watching butterflies and listening to leaves
meditating like the mountain
and sending loving kindness to the people we love most
We sit in silence gazing upon the eruption of magenta
as the sun floats down the horizon
But most of all we look inside
Each time the bell rings through the Lama dome,
we open the door of our own hearts
We listen within
We talk about how emotions can be like fire,
spreading and erupting
when we don’t know how to tend them
We talk about suffering
and the craving, aversion and delusion
that creates it
We talk about the breath
that becomes our anchor
through the sometimes treacherous waves of life
As we watch afternoon thunderstorms
and listen to the wind blowing open the wooden doors,
we remember that our mind is like the sky-
vast and boundless
and the clouds of our thoughts
come
and go
come
and go
We sit outside the rounded prayer room door
and talk about fear of death
circle up in the library to discuss dreams
and the magic of counting like the breath
like we count the beat in music
We sit around the fire and share songs, poems, paintings
and rap about awakening wonder
We sit in the music room listening to bass guitar, drums and singing nirvana
as others paint the sunset
and draw stars on each other's arms
We laugh hysterically
until our cheeks hurt
hear the bell
begin walking clockwise
and let the wave of silence wash over us again
We laugh,
we cry
and we laugh some more
because we remember
what’s worth living for
Thank you to our incredible teaching team and my incredible friends (from left to right: John, Abhi, Greg, Manny, Willow and Karin!) Thank you to Lama mountain and all the residents, stewards and community members that made this possible. Thank you to the young people for choosing this and blessing us with your inspiration.
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