Greetings All! Weird times and yet, spring is “sprunging” still! This year I have been attempting to step back a little but so far travel in Cuba for solidarity and to UK for family transitions, and getting one of the many circulating bugs that are around this neck of the woods, that intention is still to be manifested!!! I am going on silent meditation retreat 3/2-9 so may be this is where the down time begins…

MEANTIME…an Update
So the GIT - Get It Together in 2025 6 month program continues and now recordings from February are available to the public. These are simple live recordings of classes from this year and previous years. GIT members check your Welcome page for mega discount info for the downloads. It is still possible to join the GIT program if interested or you can pick and choose classes from this link

Yoga Salon is FULL for 2025 - Contact me if you are interested in future happenings.

Spring Retreat 4/9-13 - Knowing Our True Nature an Outdoor Meditation and Yoga Retreat with Kirsten Rudestam and MP - Wait list is open.

Summer Solstice Retreat 6/20-25 - Sale is over but we do have a space or 2 for camper, dorm or shared cabin accomodation

Spa Retreat in Spain - Yes! it may be possible but contact me pronto if interested. Proposed dates TBC 9/21-26 2025 I will need a minimum number of deposits in by 4/15 to confirm retreat. So don’t piss around folks if you want this to happen this year!!!

FREE Meditation - This is a tonglen meditation I am sharing with my Yoga Salon folks this month as we explore the world of roots, trees and reciprocity. Enjoy!

¡I LUV SPAIN!

Barcelona is a beautiful and exciting city but this recent short visit to Spain awakened an interesting feeling in the depths of my being. I decided not to sell my flat on the Costa Brava partly because everything right now seems very unpredictable and although logically it would be a good time to sell - plenty of interest, high expenses of maintaining said flat and the need for us all to simplify, I just couldn’t do it!! And I realize that I have a deep love of the Spanish and the Catalan way of being, especially right now.

This wasn’t always the case! I never visited in Spain in my youth as it seemed to be full of older British tourists eating fish and chips and drinking beer on their beautiful beaches. I remember in my 20s having to chose whether to work on a relatively deserted oil field town in Venezuela or go to Catalunya to a town near Barcelona. You would think it would be an easy decision out of the only 2 options that would enable me to work teaching English after I was certified in the school year which was beginning imminently. Running away from the end of a love affair, I grabbed the simplest option but without enthusiasm and much to my surprise, I passed 2 years there delighting in the culture, the climate, the cities and the countryside (the food not so sure!!)

It was a very different country then in the late 70s early 80s. I remember being in the middle of teaching a class and freezing when I heard the news of a coup de’etat and the signs that the Post Franco time was not so Post Franco as we had thought. The economy was struggling and it was before Spain joined the EU. You did not mess with the many different types of police force and there was poverty evident on the streets. The Ramblas of Barcelona were not the spruced up version they became after the Olympics in 1992 but seedy and intriguing! But while I was there, I fell in love with the ambience and both the beauty of the Catalan culture and even though my Catalan is and was non existent, I met Catalans who have remained friends til this day.

And now, in February, as I got off the plane, moved through the city streets and towns, there was a strange feeling of what I can only call “normalcy”. Unlike the high streets in many towns in the UK and US, which have been gutted by online marketing, many of the places that I went through have somehow managed to keep their character and there is definitely a great deal less obvious poverty and homelessness to what I am used to seeing, and what I was used to seeing years ago in Spain. The current president, Pedro Sanchez, sometimes nicknamed “El Guapo” because some on the right think he manages to get by being quite good looking, is managing to keep a government and an economy together that is the envy of the rest of Europe. Just yesterday I listened to a short podcast on how this government, unlike Germany and UK and many others is encouraging immigration, seeing it as an important part of why they are doing so well. Apparently they estimate that they can attribute at least 20% of the recent growth in the economy to their immigrant population. So refreshing to hear some of the positives about a diversity that is also helping a falling birth rate and an ageing population common to many western countries. I nearly jumped out of my proverbial socks reading El Pais, a middle of the road national paper, to see an article talking about how poverty levels are dropping, aided by government rent support. Good news! How strange…. So something is working here…..

Tourism is still a large part of the bustling economy and it isn’t always welcomed. The situation in Barcelona is challenging, where air b n bs owned by companies and rented by party goers have destroyed certain neighborhoods. So its not all sweetness and light in the mix of cultures!! Many immigrants work in the tourist area and 40% of the immigrant population come from other Latin countries. As wieldy and lengthy as Spanish bureaucracy can be I am so grateful that many of our Cuban friends may have an option in claiming a Spanish passport at some point down the road. How wonderful to be welcomed to a country and seen as an asset.

There have also been climate challenges with extensive fires and the terrible flooding last year in the Valencia area, where many lives were lost. I do not want to over do this appearance of well-being. However all in all, I can understand why some wise UK beings chose to move to Spain before Brexit destroyed their options. And right now, I yearn for some of that sense of normalcy that I could viscerally feel on the streets. Walking with my friend for over 45 years Marta, a retired Catalan school teacher, through the Girona streets on an early evening, kids playing, old folks chatting and taking a copa, shopping abundant, arts events occurring, buildings renovated, she remarked that yes, things are actually OK, at least compared to what she can see beyond this nation’s borders.

For now, I will keep my flat and if you want to rent it, please check out the info at this link - 50 euro discount for folks reading this on a one week rental. And I will plan for a retreat at the charming Hotel Balneari Prats nearby so I can go visit in September and because we always have such a good time at this quirky hotel and spa. Right now we all need some form of retreat and I’m really looking forward to mine this coming week.

Take care and seek the good news that is somewhere in the universe, if not right on our daffodilly doorsteps!

M

March Update: ¡I Love Spain! and Spring….

¡I LUV SPAIN!

April Update: Last Call Spa Retreat + Updates

CRAZY Summer Solstice Sale!