Dearest Readers,<\/p>\n
About three years ago I decided I needed a vacation. I\u2019m not very good at lying on a beach and having a cabana boy bring me drinks so I started to research alternatives. I was interested in doing something that would enrich my inner life so I Googled \u201cspiritual vacation british columbia.\u201d <\/p>\n
What I ended up finding was a little piece of paradise in Naramata, BC, where the Naramata Centre sits on the edge of Lake Okanagan surrounded by lush vineyards and rugged hills. As I leave here today, after my third retreat in three years in this giving place, I am truly grateful for Google and its astonishing wisdom.<\/p>\n
What a spiritual vacation gives me that a regular vacation does not is discernment. This computer\u2019s dictionary describes discernment as \u201cperception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual direction and understanding.\u201d <\/p>\n
I go on spiritual vacation in order to perceive what I cannot yet see so that I may follow the next course of action in my life.<\/p>\n
Last week, after the presentation of the Big O Project in front of 10,000+ people I reported that except for one glitch the show went off without a hitch. I also noted that participating artists and presenters were all ecstatic with the final results. <\/p>\n
A few friends responded to my concerns about the glitch with tremendous support. \u201cNo one notices these things,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
But I noticed. And the glitch was, in fact, a team of live dogs that got so scared by the noise, the lights and the crowd, that they cowered on stage and had to be pulled off by their handler. <\/p>\n
At the time, I was on stage myself, in the role of happy crowd-pleaser, encouraging the masses to clap and dance to the rockin\u2019 music being played to accompany the dogs. <\/p>\n
Talk about acting! I was mortified to see the dogs so disturbed and if I had been being truthful to what I was really feeling I would have gone immediately to comfort them instead of clapping and dancing and smiling with joy.<\/p>\n
After it was over I was back stage, in this enormous stadium, standing beside the giant torch that was the eye-popping centrepiece for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics, breathing deeply and trying to digest the remorse in my gut. I felt full of shame over what had happened. It was not my greatest moment.<\/p>\n
Coming here, to Naramata, seeking discernment, seeking rest, I have been given \u201cperception in the absence of judgment\u201d with regard to this incident, which I\u2019ve been trying to process since it happened. I am glad to say that I have been given the spiritual understanding of the situation that I was seeking. I am now at peace with it.<\/p>\n
Without going into everything that happened to get me here, I will tell you the story of the very last piece of the puzzle:<\/p>\n
Last evening, as the sun set and the birds danced and sang all around me, I stood on the threshold of the Centre\u2019s Labyrinth, a mystical path used for meditation, with a question.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can I offer? What can I give?\u201d <\/p>\n
I entered the single path that leads by twists and turns and curving lines, by one way in and one way out, and I walked, step-by-step toward the centre, listening for the answer to my questions. <\/p>\n
Just two steps away from the flower-shaped centre two dogs came bounding up to me, seemingly from nowhere. As I greeted them with great love and affection I realized that the answer to my question had just arrived, manifest in the very real figures of these two shaggy beasts.<\/p>\n
As they bounded away and I stepped into the heart of the Labyrinth the words washed over me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dogs. I can offer the dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had been blaming myself for the terrible fear I saw in the stage dogs\u2019 faces, for putting them through that ordeal. The Labyrinth dogs represented the permission I needed to finally let go of my shame over the stadium incident, AKA the \u201cglitch\u201d.<\/p>\n
What can we do with a situation that plagues us in order to move forward? How can we let it go? How can we accept and learn from it? <\/p>\n
We can offer it to the same Loving Power that sends us the answers to our deepest questions.<\/p>\n
Beats the beach and a cabana boy any day, no?<\/p>\n
Inspiring Message of the Day: When I am carrying a heavy burden I can offer it up. I do not have to hang on to that which weighs me down. I can give it to the Source of All Things and be free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dearest Readers, About three years ago I decided I needed a vacation. I\u2019m not very good at lying on a beach and having a cabana boy bring me drinks so I started to research alternatives. I was interested in doing something that would enrich my inner life so I Googled \u201cspiritual vacation british columbia.\u201d What…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[164,4,163,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-freedom-from-shame","category-inspiration","category-labyrinth","category-motivation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celiamcbride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}