From the Monastery Valley with Love!

Today is Monday again, here I am this time at the airport in Istanbul waiting for my second flight!

Where was I? I have spent this weekend at  Vadimanasır ( monastery valley)for my 9th workshop in the past 3 years. I have mentioned before how these workshops started, and what happens: in short again for those who missed that blog: we simply meet in the touchingly beautiful landscape inhabited and protected by centuries old olive trees, kept by a beautiful woman called Dilek Kepez ( a true Amazon), and we practice Somatic Dialogue ( each time focusing on a different theme) in an open air dance space, eat deliciously cooked food by Berrin, and remain silent all day long until we break the silence at dinner, then admire the fire and share very few but deep words from the day. 

Each time the gathering of the participants and the work take us to the depth of our beings, and our bodies are filled with the sense of beauty and the love is fluid, making us move from one exploration to the other all the while being our own witness as well as the witness of others. 

Does this sound like a cliché? Maybe to the ones who haven’t experienced it:) But it is never too late!

🙂

From Restriction to Liberation, was the theme of this weekend and there were many physical and movement restrictions and liberations happened, inside and also in the level of movement and expression. But what really happened was that we worked from movement to poetry! 

The poetry was flowing through the eyes of the participants when they were witnessing the ones moving. To be able to see and be seen is a big part of Somatic Dialogue. So is to be able to listen and be listened to! 

When this happens within a group, the taste of the presence shared is inexplicable through words. Maybe one day someone will be able to express it. I am always in awe when the magic happens, just like the first tribes who were in awe before a fire:) 

Usually I feel completed, satisfied with the process and am happily closing the work, happily leaving after the touching goodbyes. Usually the story stops there for me. I don’t feel bad about this because it is just, I am fully present during a workshop and I am fulfilled, therefore closing is not difficult. It is the natural part of a process lived in presence. 

But this time… something else happened. In the night, the beauty, respect and fragility commonly shared brought us to a state of being where past stories unfolded, and the listening hearts were really listening, and the words shared flew into the night washed by tears and laughter. 

My tears ran too while witnessing the dance and my intimate stories spiraled out of my tongue in the night under the olive tree, while shivering from the cold. And I feel that with this group ( most of them were coming for the 6th or 7th time) we were transported to a different level of intimacy where a refined respect, love and dignity existed, with no judgement or intervention. 

This is very special for me, and this morning while leaving and making the morning hugs of good bye a little fire of longing and sadness was quivering in my heart and still is, it feels like I am leaving a family that has been creating itself throughout the years. I became aware of this this morning.

Even beyond the cliché that it may sound, I cannot refrain from sharing how the beauty of my daughter Sofia-Su is so present in me when I work. She is somehow with me, her face, her voice, her energy. Her development, her kindness each day are growing and whispering through her voice to me when she calls me “Anne”, (mother in Turkish). She was also remembered by the Vadimanasir Family ❤️ and I am more aware of how she is accompanying me in my life. 

I have no idea what  all this awareness means nor where it will lead me, nor do I wish to know. It is like watching the crystalisation process of water when it freezes, so delicate and determined, creating harmonious structures in its own time. 

The olive trees and their wisdom. They are amazing, everywhere I go I find them in the Mediterranean region, I admire them, honour them, watch and touch them. I love being in them, the ones that are so old and have lived a life where they open their bodies for other beings to take refuge in. The olive trees of Vadimanasir, Dilek’s olive trees, were full of big black olives soon to be collected. They have been witnessing us and supporting us. We talked about their wisdom. The olive tree’s bodies metaphorically took us to thinking about our bodies. This took me to the thought of how the body has an intelligence of its own and how we have the opportunity to cultivate wisdom thanks to this intelligence. That maybe only some bodies are born with an innate wisdom, but that most of the time wisdom is cultivated through discipline, thinking, failing, retrospect and needs time, patience, resilience, care, love and kindness.

I am endlessly grateful for these moments, where the work encourages me to write and convey to you dear reader, what is lingering in my heart. 

And I could go on for pages and pages,  telling you about what all happened. But we agreed with the participants that what is shared in the work and in the circle remains there and in our hearts. 

And also you must be tired from all this reading. I hope you had a cup of tea with you. 

As usual I would like to offer you this beautiful Album as a present…somehow the olive trees took me to it.

Eleni Karaindrou, Tous Des Oiseaux

https://music.apple.com/cz/album/karaindrou-tous-des-oiseaux/1445878526

Enjoy the listening

And stay in Love

As Love must B

Berrak