During my holidays, I went to a Buddhist Retreat Centre in a province called Ixopo about 2 hours out of Durban.
It's main aim (as the name declares) is to retreat for 4 days which means: eating only vegetarian, meditating three times a day and this specific one included an art course which occupied about 5 hours of each day. I'm fascinated in all different types of art but painting really isn't my forte so I originally decided to come and just relax and participate in all other activities besides the course.
So, basically I just read, walked, wrote and talked to some really interesting people. (I might have watched a few episodes of series too)
First there was Lindi; a very versatile elderly women (probably in her 80's but it was hard to tell) she liked to butt into as many conversations as she possibly could and always added a personal story... she seemed to have previously been in every career field possible. Although most in her presence realised her stories had most probably been altered (seeing as humans are not usually able to have an average of 10 different career paths per year) she was charismatic in a mystical sort of way.
Mariam, reserved yet bursting to explode. Our first encounter was during mid-day tea, she saw my tattoo and was interested in my motives as she had various tattoos herself; it happens to be quite an intimate thing to speak about so naturally the conversation escalated. She had so many stories, she was 35 year old black-empowerpent activist so as you can imagine, she spoke with deep passion but also listened with great care.
Rosemary is straight out of a novel. She walked up to me and started playing with my hair- usually one would feel like this was an invasion of privacy but I immediately felt calm and at ease. She told me I reminded her of her late husbands sister and that I had warm eyes. For lack of a better similie, she was a teddy-bear granny! We sat together for a good hour and she told me all about her life and her wonderful romance with her late husband. She was wearing shiny blue eye-shadow, a red velvet coat and small takkies (South African slang for running shoes) and her blonde hair was the colour of popcorn.
Gaby was pure sunlight. She was one of the sweetest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Only purity encircling her every word and action. She is a brand-manager in Cape Town and came on the retreat with her best friend and his partner while her other half, her husband went surfing. Something that struck me about Gaby was her smile. She was so generous with it. I had heard from other people who had spoken to her about this incredible wedding she had and one day we took the time to go and beg one of the office staff to let us use the one ancient computer to look at the photos. She had the most extraordinary, fairy-tale forest wedding that really is worth looking at (I will attack a link next to her photo).
I met other memorable people there but four three very different yet similar independent, strong women had an impact on me.
All in all, the experience was worthwhile and very interesting. I would have liked to be there for a course I would have enjoyed participating in but I enjoyed all the alone time.
X Zo
It's main aim (as the name declares) is to retreat for 4 days which means: eating only vegetarian, meditating three times a day and this specific one included an art course which occupied about 5 hours of each day. I'm fascinated in all different types of art but painting really isn't my forte so I originally decided to come and just relax and participate in all other activities besides the course.
So, basically I just read, walked, wrote and talked to some really interesting people. (I might have watched a few episodes of series too)
First there was Lindi; a very versatile elderly women (probably in her 80's but it was hard to tell) she liked to butt into as many conversations as she possibly could and always added a personal story... she seemed to have previously been in every career field possible. Although most in her presence realised her stories had most probably been altered (seeing as humans are not usually able to have an average of 10 different career paths per year) she was charismatic in a mystical sort of way.
Mariam, reserved yet bursting to explode. Our first encounter was during mid-day tea, she saw my tattoo and was interested in my motives as she had various tattoos herself; it happens to be quite an intimate thing to speak about so naturally the conversation escalated. She had so many stories, she was 35 year old black-empowerpent activist so as you can imagine, she spoke with deep passion but also listened with great care.
Rosemary is straight out of a novel. She walked up to me and started playing with my hair- usually one would feel like this was an invasion of privacy but I immediately felt calm and at ease. She told me I reminded her of her late husbands sister and that I had warm eyes. For lack of a better similie, she was a teddy-bear granny! We sat together for a good hour and she told me all about her life and her wonderful romance with her late husband. She was wearing shiny blue eye-shadow, a red velvet coat and small takkies (South African slang for running shoes) and her blonde hair was the colour of popcorn.
Gaby was pure sunlight. She was one of the sweetest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Only purity encircling her every word and action. She is a brand-manager in Cape Town and came on the retreat with her best friend and his partner while her other half, her husband went surfing. Something that struck me about Gaby was her smile. She was so generous with it. I had heard from other people who had spoken to her about this incredible wedding she had and one day we took the time to go and beg one of the office staff to let us use the one ancient computer to look at the photos. She had the most extraordinary, fairy-tale forest wedding that really is worth looking at (I will attack a link next to her photo).
I met other memorable people there but four three very different yet similar independent, strong women had an impact on me.
All in all, the experience was worthwhile and very interesting. I would have liked to be there for a course I would have enjoyed participating in but I enjoyed all the alone time.
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| Lindi, the career woman |
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| Mariam, the activist |
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| Gaby, the kind-heart |
A few other photos of me and the environment.
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