May at the Guesthouse
The new meditation tent is now surrounded by leafy trees and a meadow, and it’s full of wool rugs and blankets.
A new meditation space
May started perfectly. An old friend visiting from the Netherlands arrived just in time to help us put up the meditation tent. The deck was already built; we just needed to figure out where to add posts for the guy ropes. Looking back at photos from just a month ago, it's striking how bare everything looked. Leafless trees, exposed ground. Now the tent sits nestled under a green canopy, surrounded by meadow. Our friend made the most of the weather by tackling the log splitter, turning recently felled trees into a satisfying new woodpile. We also got our first paddle of the year and a beach picnic in the sunshine.
All systems go in the kitchen
Attention then turned to our kitchen inspection. Serving food on retreats means navigating quite a few rules and regulations and it took some time to get our heads around them all, but we passed without any issues. Phew! That same week was also retreat food prep week. We're cooking and baking everything ourselves, and since we want to take part in the retreats too, we prepare as much as possible in advance. Rye with sunflower seeds and white sourdough are baked and in the freezer. We'll also have one element of each meal ready to go, whether a full dish like lasagne or a base like green Thai curry sauce to which we can add freshly roasted vegetables later. A few desserts are prepped too. So far the system is working well.
The Garden Retreat
Guests joined from the UK and Sweden for a programme built around four hours of daily garden work, and people loved it. Gardening is really just meditation, bodywork and time in nature rolled into one. It's also an enormous help to us to have extra hands in the beds. Dhammasiri, who had recently completed her qigong training, led us through qigong under the trees each morning. It was a cold spring, and our morning and evening meditations in the tent meant huddling under blankets with the stove lit. But listening to birdsong and watching shadows move across the canvas roof made it absolutely worth it. We also built a small fire pit and closed the retreat with a bonfire.
Time for a little creativity
The following weekend I found myself lying in the garden watching clouds drift across the sky. Before you ask, no, I hadn't run out of jobs. I was following instructions during a wonderful creative meditation day with my friend Katie, exploring the ground and the sky as symbols in Buddhism for being simultaneously empty and full of potential. With the sun out and four hours of creative prompts ahead of us, lying in the grass felt a good use of my time.
Living with Ease
Next up was a home retreat with The Buddhist Centre Online, and preparation included two trips to Stenshuvud beach and our first proper swims of the year. We work hard here, but we've made a pact: when a hot day and a flexible diary coincide, we go to the sea. There's nothing quite like the first warm sun on winter-white skin.
The retreat itself ran for five days, five hours a day, with around forty people practising together with us at each session. Sessions were recorded and made available within a couple of hours, so participants across time zones could catch up on what they missed. The theme was the Four Noble Truths, a teaching that looks directly at suffering and, crucially, at how we might lessen it in our own lives. What struck me most was the sense of community that formed over those five days. There was something quietly powerful about sharing the harder parts of our lives and realising we weren't alone with them. That in fact we were all in the same boat. The retreat, Living with Ease, is available to follow at any time through The Buddhist Centre Online.
We used the Garden House to broadcast from and it was such a nice space to inhabit. It’s available for solitaries and holidays too!
The natural world
The peonies and roses are just opening, and we're eating rhubarb and asparagus. We haven't mown the grass this year and are letting it go to meadow. So far it has mostly been a meadow of dandelions, but we're trusting that other species will find their way to us in time. A nuthatch has claimed the house as his territory and spends his days tapping on the window of whichever room we happen to be in. So much for a quiet life in the countryside!
Related posts:
Practice a radical hospitality
Buddhism for hedonists
