Not-So-Silent Retreat, Part 1

I went off to a five day retreat in Utah. Immediately after signing up in July, I had cold feet. What did I know about this? Not much. A woman I read about in Runner's World, Mirna Valerio, and then followed on Instagram, and then joined her Facebook group, was the sponsor. But she wasn't the organizer. That was someone I'd never heard of. In early September, I got an email saying fewer people signed up than they hoped, there would only be three of us, but it would be fun and we should come anyway.

I hesitated a long time, before finally saying I'd come. I didn't want to go off with a strangers I'd have to talk to. The idea with the big group was that I'd be able to be lost in the crowd. With fewer, I might actually have to interact. But I really wanted to get away from work, and the thought of the desert was more than a little attractive after all the rain we've had. So I bought my airplane ticket and off I went.

I knew almost nothing about what was going to happen. I didn't really know where were staying. I had never met nor read much about the organizers, and certainly had no details about the other guests. I did have a cell phone number, an email address, an emailed shuttle ticket from Las Vegas airport to St. George Utah, and a promise that once I got to St. George, I would not need to do a thing for the rest of the week.

It was fabulous. The organizer, Shanti Hodges, had just bought a house in Utah, and her in-laws who live in Alaska had bought another house a couple of doors down. She and her husband were just starting a business of retreats and guiding, using their two new houses which would be Airbnbs between retreats and during trips. Between Shonti and Mirna, it was the perfect complete get-away from my current life.

Mirna is a writer, a professional ultra-runner, and a motivational speaker. Shonti is a writer with twenty years in the outdoor industry, the founder and head of a large non-profit hiking group, and compulsive community-builder. The other women on the retreat included a health care professional, a tech industry marketer, and a school counselor turned yoga instructor and closet organizer. Joining us for additional activities were a yoga instructor who is learning to code, a professional photographer, a nurse who is a major instagram hero, and a foot masseuse/reflexologist. We hiked, we ate, we hiked, we did yoga, we hiked, we had foot massages, we hiked, we sat around and talked, we ran, and we hiked. We took pictures. Lots of pictures. We checked in on our kids. With women coming and going and bonding, there was chatter, and jokes, and tears. We posted on social media, we had clinics in how to jazz up your instagram stories, we went out of cell coverage and took more pictures to share later. There was even silence, sometimes, as we soaked in the natural spirituality prompted by the desert landscapes.

More to come.