Summer Retreat ’16: The Final Day

Each day holds so much possibility. When day four rolls around, it's nearly impossible to focus on staying in the moment and drinking in everything the day has to offer when we know it's a lot of 'lasts'. But we knew there was more to experience and more memories to make - and the day did NOT disappoint.

We started the morning off with banana pancakes and watermelon sprinkled in lime zest then headed down to the yoga room for a very special practice. The essential oils came out and the yoga poses were supported by loving hands-on assists; picture peppermint oil being pressed into your shoulders while a gentle piano ballad fills the room. Pure magic.

We talked about the metaphor of our pain being a thorn. We do a lot to protect this thorn by building contraptions to protect it, letting no one close to it because it's too painful when it gets touched. This contraption gets heavy, unbearable to carry around. Pretty soon we don't want to go anywhere; we can't bear the weight of our pain-protective mechanisms. All along, we could have pulled this thorn out, we could have let ourselves bleed. We could have trusted our bodies to create the scar and heal us. This is our opportunity. Yoga allows us to pull out thorns: address our pain, bleed (aka FEEL), then let the wound heal and close up.

We lightened it up in the afternoon with a hike to Mount Galiano. We made it to the top by practicing our rendition of Drake 'One Dance' set to our newly written lyrics. The views were absolutely stunning (peep the Instagram for some stellar yoga and Gulf Island situations). We made it down just in time before the rain came.

We kept the afternoon cozy by foraging for flowers and forest finds to make nature crowns. We donned our finest indigo tie dye shirts, put our crowns on and sat for our last dinner together.

The true highlight was our talent showcase after dinner where girls sang, displayed art and shared a very special spoken word and dance performance that brought us all to tears. We ended the night by reading the love letters we wrote to one another. We sat in a circle silently with a few sniffles and laughs while we all took in the beautiful words others wrote about us.

There is so much power in truly being seen for who you are. The letters reiterated what others made us feel in the last four days and how we so easily went from strangers to family. These are keepsakes we will have forever to open on our darkest days and remember who we were when we took our masks off and let people in.