I am writing this retreat newsletter at the start of Diwali on Oct 24th. This is the Festival of Lights and now is a National Holiday in New York. Many in Hinduism celebrate this holiday.
In this Festival of Lights we know it is a time to celebrate good over evil and knowledge over ignorance and light over the darkness.
In my life, I believe this all to be true.
I envisioned Kumari of the Woods many years ago. I loved someone very much who bought this property and while our relationship ended, I am grateful for that experience and for knowing him, his culture and his family as he knew mine so well, too. We all loved him very much and I think the joy he gave us was indeed given to this land.
This man was kind enough to sell this house and land to me and my son. My son, in particular, simply loves this land. He is devoted to it and to the care and maintenance of our house, a simple log home with a post & beam addition. Ben believed, as I began to believe, that we needed to invite others to this land to walk it and stay here. We imagined artists coming here first: writers who needed quiet and visual artists who needed inspiration and color surrounding them. We imagined musicians and those who write songs or plays or poetry.
None of those thoughts have disappeared but indeed, we now see that many others need to stay here for a few days or a week and restore their energy and bathe within the light of the forest.
I know darkness in my life but I also know that light enters when I invite it in.
I happen to do my best painting and writing in the moonlight, very late after most people are asleep…I am awake at my computer or at my canvas. Light for me is coming from my heart and shining forward to whatever project I am creating at that time.
Light is real. And light is abstract.
I work with clients who live deeply within darkness. I advise them not to be afraid but to move gently towards the light.
The light is always there. The candles flickering late at night, the sun rising, the glow of embers around a campfire…it takes a little vision to see the light and to invite it to wash over you.
You will feel it.
When people are hurt from break ups or abuse or trauma or the loss of those they love, often they can only see the dark days ahead of them. I do understand. The first thing I advise them is to not fight the darkness. As soon as you try to push the darkness away, it covers you in a heavier way. It becomes a cloak you cannot remove.
Instead, make friends with the darkness and just keep walking forward. As you wake each day, take a step forward and maybe walk a little closer to the light.
You will see it.
If you keep struggling to remove the cloak of darkness, it will entangle you more.
This is how it is: the more you fight the darkness, the more it surrounds you.
Simply Surrender.
If you stay at Kumari of the Woods, I invite you to take a midnight walk. Take a candle with you or a flashlight and notice all that you can see. You will not be lost. You will not be scared unless you choose to be scared. You will be held by the darkness like a mother holding her child. No worries. And when you lie down in the darkness of your cottage or your hideaway retreat, you will feel that the light led you to a safe place.
Kumari of the Woods.
I am not the healer here. You are. The forest is next to you. You will heal your fears, your sadness, your anxiety that surrounds you because when you come here, you will experience how the light triumphs over darkness in your life.
I know this. I have lived it.
I lost two amazing loves in my life, one when he died in 2010 and one who used to walk here. I used that darkness to teach me how I could find the light.
I can teach you.
All you need to do is walk towards the light.
Happy Diwali,
kumari patricia (and ben)