Depending on My Village

About a month ago, I got an email about a continuing education class that I've wanted to take for years. It was for Watsu (short for "water shiatsu") and the teacher is fantastic--and it was going to be her last class.

I called around, made arrangements for people to watch my daughter while I'd be gone three days midweek, and sent in payment.

This morning was a bit chaotic as I got up, scrambled to pack myself for three days, pack/plan for my daughter for three days, and get to a different class on being a board member for my daughter's preschool (as if I needed anything else to do).

After the class, I came home and ran around a bit more loading the car, then realized I had several errands to run before I could meet the woman I was going to carpool with to the Watsu class. Threw everything in the car and as I was mentally going through my errands, I stopped at a light. Since I was in a hurry, of course the guy didn't notice it was green. Someone else honked at him and he finally took off, but not in enough time for the honker or me to get through the signal.

Then a train came by and took up a good 10 minutes. Then the signal turned for everyone else but us. TWICE. I sat at that intersection for 20 minutes. By time I got through, I was ready to break land speed records to get everything done because one of the things I had to do was eat.

Dropped off letters at post office. Dropped off ballot to vote. Picked up lunch. Stopped at the grocery store to pick up nasal strips to keep me from snoring since I was going to be in shared lodging accommodations. Finally I met up with her and we were on our way.

When we got to the hot springs (where this class was being offered), we went to check in--and we couldn't move into our lodging yet. I had only 20 minutes to get to my first session after we could move in and it's a 10 minute walk from the lodging, so I was feeling a little cramped for time, again.

My first session, which was an introductory treatment, was fantastic. It helped me slow down and unwind, even though I had to consciously think about letting go.

We had dinner--I was glad I'd stopped for groceries as this is an all-organic (yay!) 100% vegetarian (not so yay) retreat. The food is excellent, but my inner carnivore is never satisfied, so I take along beef jerky for between-meal snacks.

On the way over to our "land training" session, there were three deer right next to the path we were on, not twenty feet away, just munching on the grass. One of the women I was with noticed that one of them was significantly larger than the others. Just as we were debating whether she might be pregnant, we saw her belly move in a highly abnormal manner: her baby was kicking!

It was really cool.

During land training, we scheduled our water practice sessions--although it is the largest pool at the hot springs, it is still a bit crowded doing Watsu techniques, so only four practice at a time, and we had eight in the class. At the end of our discussion/lecture session, we were asked to sum up, in one word, our intentions/feelings for the moment or as goals for the class.

One word limit? Me? I couldn't do it. I was the last one to go, and all I could come up with, based on how I'd rushed through the day and been so impatient with it, was "Practicing Patience."

Double my allotted word count. Oh well.

Afterwards, instead of taking the time to just soak, I went back to my cabin to work on finishing Jen Lancaster's new book, If You Were Here.

I really wanted to call and see how my family was doing, if my daughter got picked up okay, to give my husband reminders to give to my dad tomorrow (like drop off the DVDs that are due when he took her to Family Storytime, etc.), but this being a remote retreat--no cell phone service. And by "no cell phone service" I mean the last place I had reception was an hour away, so it's not like I could drive five minutes down the road and back to check in.

Apparently I will just have to be patient and wait and see how things went when I get home.