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Magic, retreats

Finding the Magic ~ Bath

May 26, 2018

Finding the Magic ~ Bath

September 24 – 28, 2018

This retreat is sold out, but if you would like to go on the waiting list, please email me.

Let’s go somewhere special together. Let’s connect and wonder and talk about wild and magical things…

 


Finding the Magic is not about retreating.

Finding the Magic is about embracing.

 

It is about taking a bit of time for yourself so that you can return to your life feeling more full and more nourished and more connected than ever before.

It is about spending time walking on ancient ground and visiting sacred places, all of which whisper to you that anything is possible.

It is about being part of an intimate circle of only 7 women, creating community, journaling, creating, making magic, holding space for each other, and believing in our dreams.

It is about learning how to not only find the magic but how to actively participate in it.

Because that is where the true Magic is: it’s about listening to your spirit, paying attention, and then participating in the creation of your life.

 

Finding the Magic is about you.

 

 

THE PLACE

The longer I am away from England, the more certain places call to my heart. I can hear their whispers calling me to come back: our adventures are not over.

The week after I had the idea for my novel, I was sent on a work trip to Bath Spa. At the end of the weekend, I decided enough was enough and I took myself on a tour of the Roman Baths. There, in a dark ante-chamber I came face-to-face with both the goddess Minerva and a Gorgon who reminded me of my Dad. As I stared at them, the rest of my book ‘Unfurl’ed around me.

I’m not the only one who thinks it’s wonderful. UNESCO has it on the World Heritage List and says that The City of Bath is of Outstanding Universal Value. 

It is a place of magic; of history and enchantment so deep, you can feel it with every step and see it around every corner.

I invite you to come and find some of that magic for yourself.

 

 

And if the magic of Bath isn’t enough, we will also be spending one morning watching the sun rise from the inner circle of Stonehenge.

Imagine taking all of the dreaming and all of the visioning and all of the magic of a retreat and then claiming all of that for yourself as the sun rises over this circle of ancient stones.

Come and join me.

 

A Year of Magical Eating

Magical Eating

April 30, 2018
beans at the market

 

“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” ~ Michael Pollan

Just about a year ago, I wrote a post about eating magically. Magic was and is at the heart of everything I do – why on earth wasn’t I also using that as a basis for how I was eating? Despite eating pretty well, I was experiencing a then 9-month long case of hives, and was at the end of my itchy rope. So I took my own advice, spending the past year paying very close attention to the Magic of what I ate and drank.

When I talk about eating Magically it sounds like I spend my days whipping up stardust and moonbeam smoothies while telling you the virtues of living my high-raw and therefore high-vibe life.

I don’t and I won’t do that. (And I’m not raw vegan. In fact, I am unclassifiable.)

I do admit that in the past I have been tempted by the wonder. I have seen articles about the glorious effects of drinking collagen and then gone to Amazon to see how much those little pots of goodness (it turns out they are made of whizzed up cows) were and then laughed at myself and wondered about the state of the world. I have stood in a bookstore and fondled the pages of a cookbook full of recipes for powders and sauces that all appear to have mystical powers, if you have the time and the life energy and the money to spend on all of that.

But when I stop myself and let myself breathe for a few moments (my rule: step away and think about it if it promises a miracle), I can see that not only does the Emperor have no clothes on, but that he/she is ageing and worried about her body just like I am.

For more than 30 years of my life, I struggled with food. I was home from school with ‘tummy aches’ a lot, and as I got older I felt just a little bit sick a lot of the time. I went to the doctor so often with lots of things. Luckily I lived in a country where I could do that. When, totally frustrated, I finally went to another doctor (after a brutal internal scope to check for ulcers) and said, “something’s still not right!”, and he said, “we’ll do a blood test to just rule out Celiac Disease,” my life changed.

Within months of not eating gluten, as my gut healed, I began to be able to eat fruit again. Despite years – years – of scarfing down vitamins, it was when I began to eat differently that I began to feel better.

But it was shopping for food that really shifted things.

When you are allergic to gluten, you have to read every single food label. Every one. And when you start to read what is going into your body, you begin to wonder what the heck all of that tetrahydrowhatisthatizine is doing in your food.

So slowly we began making small changes. When we could afford it, we’d choose organic fruits and vegetables. When something had too many ingredients to pronounce, we put it back on the shelf. We chose to make a few more things from scratch. We stopped eating things with ingredients that we knew were poison (MSG and high-fructose corn syrup were the first to go), and began to choose differently whenever we could.

None of this was complicated or expensive or unusual. It was simply a matter of choosing things that either were – or had the closest passing resemblance to – real food.

And with each choice, the next one seemed a little bit easier. We weren’t perfect, in fact as big food lovers we had lots of ridiculous conversations in the condiments aisle, and lots of nights of just buying whatever we wanted. But as the years went by, we began having less of that and more conscious choices.

And that was when we began to talk about changing our lives.

I don’t think that it was a coincidence that when we were eating more real food and less fake food we began to feel better.  I don’t think that it is a coincidence that as we healed our bodies, our thoughts went to wanting more. The more actual food we ate, the more we wanted to do more, see more, and create more.

Then I added Magic to the mix. And you know, the overwhelming feeling I had right from the beginning was relief and expansion.

Eating Magically is not about potions or powders or fads or capital W ‘wellness’. In my opinion that is simply another way to give our power and our connection to our Source away. It’s not about what to eat or what not to eat. It’s about coming at eating from an entirely new perspective.

Remember that in my definition, Magic is: the moments of connection between me and the Mystery/ Source/ the Divine. So then Eating Magically is about seeing the Divine, allowing the Wonder, and opening to the Universe in every bite. It’s about allowing food to remind us of who we are – instead of all of the the ways that we are not.

We were built to eat. We were built to need food. Isn’t it possible that the infinite wisdom that created us also created the nourishment we need in the forms we need it? And what if magical food does not have to be only for the people who can afford little pots of it, because all food is magical?

What if the food we eat is the foundation for every other interaction we have with the world?

What then?

with so much love,

meghan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finding the Magic

Let Yourself be Silently Drawn

April 11, 2018

My husband and I have recently begun seeing an acupuncturist. Well, we thought we were seeing an acupuncturist. She’s also trained in both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda.

For many years now we have been doing everything we know of to help ourselves feel the very best we can feel. While living here that meant a lot of fresh juices (with a Vitamix, not a juicer) and salads and raw things: because raw is obviously the way to go right?

So why were we both still feeling rubbish a lot of the time?

During our first session, when she did her thing, she found that both of us were incredibly depleted. Our ‘digestive fire’ was very low. When she asked us about our eating habits, she told us that actually what we were doing – putting a fresh, cold raw juice in first, and eating lots of raw veggies – was actually making our depletion worse. What we needed right now (all of this can change as we heal) were things to fire up our digestion, not dampen it down.

And you know what? I knew it. I never felt great after a salad. I knew that I felt better when I had cooked stuff alongside the raw, but so many people said that raw food was better for me, I ignored my body and ate salad. (I am looking forward to healing my fire so much that I feel great eating salads!)

So along with other things, we have been starting each day with a cup of hot water with fresh ginger in it. We’ve been having soups instead of salads and cooked veggies instead of raw ones.

And we are starting to feel a lot better.

I’m telling you this story because my procrastination tactic for the last hour included looking up things that might support this new health – and when I found myself reading about these amazing adaptogenic mushrooms, I started to laugh.

When I was a kid someone told me that mushrooms didn’t need sunshine to grow. That (and the texture) freaked me out and I couldn’t eat a mushroom for years and years (and still have to decide it’s okay on a case-by-case basis).

We try so hard to be good. To be positive. To shine. To glow. To be in the light. To feel the fear and do it anyway. To be high-vibe (save me from this term!) all of the time.

We either avoid or fondle the darkness because in the dark is where we find our shadows, our intensity, and our broken-ness.

Why can’t we also find our health and our healing in the dark? Why can’t we just see that the only way to healing is to see the goodness in both?

Nature knows. 

As we work our land and begin to plant things, we are discovering that – despite what we have been told – growing things don’t necessarily need a lot of sunsine. In fact, there are some things that need full sunshine, others like dappled shade, others like full shade, and some like near-total darkness. Everything here is finding its way and doing its own thing. Some plants grow deep roots in the earth, some grow a shallow web of roots and are barely clinging on, some grow bigger roots up and away from the edge of the river or mountain (to brace themselves so that they don’t fall down or in), and some simply send roots out, hoping to catch on to something.

Everything does its own thing. There is no value in one over another. Each has adapted to do what they need to do. None of those plants or animals or insects is wishing that they were different. None of them is wondering whether they are right to feel best in the deep, rich, protected soil of the rainforest floor, or whether their faces should stop following the sun (many do!).

The Equinoxes are the only two times in the entire year that there is equal light and dark. They are the only two times – and last only a short short time – that the earth is in ‘balance’.

There is, in fact, no way to always remain in balance. There is no having everything. There is no perfect way, because your way might need more light or more water or more raw vegetables, or more meat or more mushrooms than mine. Your way this time around might need more quiet or more parties or more books or more hiking or more paragliding and less flying than mine. Your way might need more music or less scent or more children or more pets or more security or less dancing or more introspection or different beliefs or more shoes than the person you are thinking ‘has it all’.

Find your way. Stop trying to be something you are not. Lean towards the things you love. Allow your roots to grow into the places where you need support. Turn your face to the sun or the moon or the stars or the earth or the wind or the sea. Be open to the lessons, try to understand what’s coming up to be looked at and learn from it. The spiral is a very important shape in the natural world. We are cyclical and rhythmic and as connected to this planet as any other growing thing.

If you are a tree, stop comparing yourself to the vines. If you are a vine, stop comparing yourself to the mushrooms. If you are a mushroom, stop comparing yourself to the flowers. There is potent medicine in all of them. And their vibe is just as high no matter where they are growing.

You are here for a very important reason: to be you. Rumi said: “Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” If you are longing to put your face in the sunshine, find some. If it feels too bright, go into the shade. But do what feels good and feels right for you. There is no such thing as sustainable balance.

What do you want? What do you love? What feels good? Start there.

xo