Skyros is everyday in my mind. I can't forget the place, the people, the experience. It was so special: the people were special, the experience was special - how so? Let me tell you.
Living in community for two weeks brings a bond as great as, or even greater, than family. Here we are miles away from our roots, our jobs, our loved ones, our homes. Because of the personal development element of the experience we get to know each other very well, very quickly. Our hearts bond from compassion of each other's lives. We identify with ages and stages of life, the ups and downs that everyone enjoys and endures. We wash up each others dinner plates, we look for who is missing and who is fun to be around. We form little groups, perhaps each day acquainting with someone different. We write, listen, draw, meditate, visualise, learn, dance, sing, eat, drink, be sociable or seek out solitude, we swim in the sea together, phone home, Skype, text or email in snatched moments between gatherings. It's full on busy-ness. It was, at times, hard work. It was physical, mindful, spiritual. We laughed together and cried together.
Now though, this 'family' are scattered to all corners of the world. Contact is by email, Facebook, Skype etc. A sense of great loss, grief even, is ever present. It was a holiday like no other before it, and for me probably never again to be repeated. A one off experience. Photographs evoke the memories but they lack the warmth of sun and souls.
'Life changing' was advertised as one of its attributes. I have certainly returned fired up with motivation for getting on with the business of writing and publication. I have taken to a glass of red wine far more than I used to too. I feel as though I have stepped into another phase of life and it is fitting that autumn is now all around me. I am shedding parts of my life that are over, throwing out, giving away, boxing up things that were so important during my working life. Retirement is here.
Like the sun rising over the Aegean sea as we departed the Island on our homeward bound journey, a new day is dawning.
When I connect with those I met we all wish we were 'back there', perhaps we are missing the love and light that engulfed us, perhaps change is uncomfortable, unpredictable, scary. Trying to get back to normal isn't our normal any more, a new normal is emerging only we have to wait to find out what that is. This winter and next spring will be very interesting I'm sure!
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