Maniototo

The Eagles were in concert in the Dunedin stadium on Saturday night, so even at 7 am the next day, the roads were clogged with cars being driven cautiously homeward by people in their 50s - mum and dad rockers who'd been livin' it up at the Hotel California. I was on my way to a six day silent retreat in the Maniototo and it was slow going. I stopped for coffee in Palmerston and in the Pig Root there was thick fog, so thick I drove past the turn off by the Kyeburn Bridge. I found it again - it's not as though there were lots of other options - but the last 20 minutes were spent on gravel roads wrapped in a damp, opaque white blanket, quietly wondering if I was where I thought I was. Spiritual lesson 1. And then there were the familiar old buildings looming up amongst the trees.

People arrived and found themselves a room. We gathered and talked about what they might expect. After lunch the silence began, for the retreatants anyway. Those of us who are guiding them - John, Judith Anne, Barbara and me - met in one of the rooms of this sprawling place to talk and plan and try to notice what is going on. For us it's a week long journey as powerful as that of the retreatants, but it's a different path.

The fog rose and the sky opened up relentlessly blue. By mid day it was well over 30 and the predictions are for 37 later in the week. In other years it has been cooler, so I have brought clothing based on those expectations. Dammit. Spiritual lesson 2, and an important one it is too. The way we perceive the world and all the decisions we make about what do do in it are shaped by our past.

After lunch, despite the heat, I walked, over dressed, up into the hills. Warm. Dessicated. Dry - well, not me, so much. I'm going to have to find the laundry before the week is through. Spiritual lesson 3.

Comments

Kate said…

What a contrast. Yet there are possibly spiritual lessons to be learned in the middle of Hotel California. But they would have to be very loud to be heard.

4 March 2019 at 14:20

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