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2548Omega at the Crossings
Sep. 29th, 2004 04:15 pmSep. 29, 2004
Omega at the Crossings was pretty nice. The workshop was good, fairly
simple, did not exceed any boundaries (ie: the facilitator did not
ask us to hug, dance, sing, or do anything embarassing)
The first exercise in loving attention was to sit with a partner
(Victoria) and close your eyes, center yourself, and then open your
eyes and focus on the person, on the meeting of yourself and the
person, and if something distracts from that focus, close your eyes &
center again. It was interesting. It was interesting to watch
Victoria go from inner focus to focus on me, to watch her eyes and
mouth smile to see me. To see her face animate with a bit of impish
glee. (then I almost got the giggles & had to close my eyes & focus
again) She told me she saw an aura around me of many shifting colors,
and that she experienced a feeling of 'opening' and compassion. She
didn't want to open her eyes at the beginning, and I tried to keep my
eyes open the whole time. Easier for her to be watched than to watch,
easier for me to watch than to be watched.
The second exercise was to share a story of unconditional love with
your partner. The partner's job is to focus on your storytelling,
rather than the words. That was interesting too. Eye contact was
hard. I cried. Victoria almost did when she told her story and when
she listened to mine, both. It was very powerful. Then she offered
me a hankie and I refused. Later, I realized that I usually, almost
always, refuse offers of any kind from people. In the same way that
it was easier for me to watch than to be watched, it is easier for me
to give than to receive. My story of unconditional love made me cry
because...well, I dunno, but I guess on some level I just don't
believe I deserve that kind of love, even though I try to give that
kind of love to people. One of the discussion points after the
exercise was that 1) we have to love ourselves in order to love
others and 2) the well of divine love is inside each of us, that
we 'fall in love' not with another person, but actually into the well
of love inside us, that is always present and always there for us and
for the others in our lives.
And, as I keep hearing & re-hearing, it is more important and healing
for us to love those who seem unlovable, to love those who are
suffering, than it is to love those who are easy to love.
You are, therefore you are loved. It's true true true, so true it
hurts and makes me cry to think about it.
So, the actual place:
The grounds are very pretty--xeriscaped landscape, lots of shade &
big rocks to sit on along what appears to be several miles of walking
trails. The buildings are set up far enough apart to give an
appearance of privacy for each bungalow, the spa, the cafe', etc. The
library is gorgeous. The architecture is very nice: wood and
limestone, lots of open spaces, windows, high ceilings with exposed
wood beams (bad feng shui, but very pretty) The staff at the front
office & facilitating the meeting were pretty Stepford (tall tan
blondes), but the spa front desk girls were interesting & attractive
in a more 'normal' kind of way. One was a chubby, but attractive
hispanic girl, who very kindly directed us to the water area. I dont
remember the other girl at all, actually but she was not a stepford
clone, anyway.
The water area was visually stunning, the pool has a great view and
one of those 'zero horizon' 'negative edge' or whatever it is called
where the pool just STOPS and the view of the hill country begins.
However, there was an odd 'pong' in the air vaguely reminiscent of
the pool area on the cruise ship--sort of a salty, fishy, stagnant
odor. I hope that's not a permanent feature of the pool.
Omega at the Crossings was pretty nice. The workshop was good, fairly
simple, did not exceed any boundaries (ie: the facilitator did not
ask us to hug, dance, sing, or do anything embarassing)
The first exercise in loving attention was to sit with a partner
(Victoria) and close your eyes, center yourself, and then open your
eyes and focus on the person, on the meeting of yourself and the
person, and if something distracts from that focus, close your eyes &
center again. It was interesting. It was interesting to watch
Victoria go from inner focus to focus on me, to watch her eyes and
mouth smile to see me. To see her face animate with a bit of impish
glee. (then I almost got the giggles & had to close my eyes & focus
again) She told me she saw an aura around me of many shifting colors,
and that she experienced a feeling of 'opening' and compassion. She
didn't want to open her eyes at the beginning, and I tried to keep my
eyes open the whole time. Easier for her to be watched than to watch,
easier for me to watch than to be watched.
The second exercise was to share a story of unconditional love with
your partner. The partner's job is to focus on your storytelling,
rather than the words. That was interesting too. Eye contact was
hard. I cried. Victoria almost did when she told her story and when
she listened to mine, both. It was very powerful. Then she offered
me a hankie and I refused. Later, I realized that I usually, almost
always, refuse offers of any kind from people. In the same way that
it was easier for me to watch than to be watched, it is easier for me
to give than to receive. My story of unconditional love made me cry
because...well, I dunno, but I guess on some level I just don't
believe I deserve that kind of love, even though I try to give that
kind of love to people. One of the discussion points after the
exercise was that 1) we have to love ourselves in order to love
others and 2) the well of divine love is inside each of us, that
we 'fall in love' not with another person, but actually into the well
of love inside us, that is always present and always there for us and
for the others in our lives.
And, as I keep hearing & re-hearing, it is more important and healing
for us to love those who seem unlovable, to love those who are
suffering, than it is to love those who are easy to love.
You are, therefore you are loved. It's true true true, so true it
hurts and makes me cry to think about it.
So, the actual place:
The grounds are very pretty--xeriscaped landscape, lots of shade &
big rocks to sit on along what appears to be several miles of walking
trails. The buildings are set up far enough apart to give an
appearance of privacy for each bungalow, the spa, the cafe', etc. The
library is gorgeous. The architecture is very nice: wood and
limestone, lots of open spaces, windows, high ceilings with exposed
wood beams (bad feng shui, but very pretty) The staff at the front
office & facilitating the meeting were pretty Stepford (tall tan
blondes), but the spa front desk girls were interesting & attractive
in a more 'normal' kind of way. One was a chubby, but attractive
hispanic girl, who very kindly directed us to the water area. I dont
remember the other girl at all, actually but she was not a stepford
clone, anyway.
The water area was visually stunning, the pool has a great view and
one of those 'zero horizon' 'negative edge' or whatever it is called
where the pool just STOPS and the view of the hill country begins.
However, there was an odd 'pong' in the air vaguely reminiscent of
the pool area on the cruise ship--sort of a salty, fishy, stagnant
odor. I hope that's not a permanent feature of the pool.
