🌿 Being With… My Retreat Vision

I’ve shared a lot about our journey in Costa Rica.

The land.
The waterfalls.
The surprises and challenges of building something in the jungle.

But I haven’t shared very much about the deeper vision for the retreat space.

And truthfully, it’s the why that keeps me here.

The possibility of what this place could hold.

And the gift that Costa Rica has already offered me personally.

A place to be.

I love retreats.

I’ve attended them.
I’ve hosted them.
I even turned our home in Hood River into a retreat space.

Now we’re designing one from scratch — from a different energy.

When I look around the retreat world, most retreats seem to fall into a few categories:

Practice-based retreats — yoga, meditation, breathwork.
Process-based retreats — therapy, healing work, emotional processing.
Learning-based retreats — courses, workshops, teachings.
Plant-medicine retreats — psilocybin, ayahuasca, and other ceremonial work.

In the past, the retreats I hosted included pieces of several of these (except the plant-medicine path).

But what I feel called toward now is something quieter.

Something simpler.

Presence-based retreats.

This is not a retreat to learn, do, or be seen — it’s a retreat to simply be.

Not retreats where we come to fix ourselves.
Not retreats where we come to improve ourselves.
Not retreats where we need to process our limiting beliefs.
Not retreats where we focus on what we want to create.

Just a space to enter a different rhythm of being.

Where the land itself does much of the work.

No fixing.
No processing.
No curriculum.
No improving.

Just space.
Nature.
And a gentle rhythm.

A lot of retreats also emphasize community — shared meals, group circles, constant togetherness.

And while there can be beauty in that, I’ve noticed something else.

Many of us rarely have spaces where we are simply allowed to be with ourselves.

Not isolated.
Not alone in a lonely way.

But free from the subtle pressure to socialize, connect, process, or participate.

A place where time with others can happen naturally — but where solitude is just as welcome.

What I imagine is simple.

Each person has their own luxury jungle hut.
Their own place to wake slowly to the sounds of the jungle.

An outdoor living space to relax in hammocks, enjoying local tropical fruits and simple meals — along with my Slothee Coffee.

An open-air studio to hula hoop, practice yoga, or explore other forms of movement.

A massage in the center of the bamboo forest.

Walking the spiral labyrinth and wandering the paths through the jungle.

Witnessing the sunsets over the ocean and mountains.

Spaces to move, rest, wander, and be with yourself.

And you know what lights me up the most?

A place where no one is watching.

Where there is nothing to perform.

Just the quiet permission to be exactly as you are.

Every time I’m standing at the waterfall here — or facing one of the many unexpected challenges of building something in the jungle — this vision is what holds me.

Because the longer I’m here, the more I feel what this kind of space can do.

Something softens.
The nervous system unwinds.
The inner noise quiets.

And slowly, almost without trying, something inside begins to feel lighter.

More free.

More ready for life again.

There’s something rare about a space that simply allows you to be yourself — without expectation, without pressure, without needing to explain or fix anything.

I imagine many of us have never had that before.

And the first time we do, it feels like coming home.

That’s the kind of retreat I want to experience.

And the kind of space I feel called to create here.

Obviously, it’s still unfolding.

And for now, I’m simply being with the vision.

Relishing in the idea of sharing this place with others in this way, someday.

And trusting the right people will feel it, too.

🌿