Kate Taylor's Yoga Site

Got back last night from the yoga retreat I led at the Hostel in the Forest. This amazing place consists of hand-built tree houses and dome structures on ~120 acres of forest near the town of Brunswick on the Georgia coast.
After dinner and a campfire talk on Friday night, we started the day on Saturday with a yoga practice in the big glass house. This is probably the most beautiful space in which I have ever practiced yoga. It's a ~600 square foot hexagonal structure, with sliding glass doors all the way around. Practicing in the glass house is like practicing on the forest floor (but with a roof over your head and screens to keep away (most of) the critters).

I taught a vinyasa (flow) yoga class to a group of about 17 the first morning. The playlist for the music can be found here. (I am excited that I just figured out how to post my playlists to iTunes and publish them on my site - more to come soon!)

After class, Tom, the hostel owner, invited us back to see his private tree house. He planted a living roof on top of his house about three years ago and has a one-of-a-kind fern covered roof. He also showed us his state-of-the-art composting toilet. The toilets at the hostel are incredible - they are all of the composting sort, and the hostel may be the longest running composting toilet operation in the world. Photos of his living roof, outhouse and the rest of the weekend are on my photos page.

The afternoon was spent doing some karma yoga - giving back to the hostel by working on a number of projects. Part of the group helped Murray restack and protect the wood for a new dome structure that will be built later in the fall. Another group worked with Peaches to clean up the hostel's nature trails, clearing overgrown brush and removing fallen trees. Another group worked with Molly to clear and sweep out the labyrinth, which we planned to use later in the evening.

A fourth group helped Carlyn weed her beautiful vegetable garden. I signed up for that group, thinking it would be a a meditative exercise in pulling a few weeds from the vegetable beds. In the forest, though, and especially in a 100% organic garden, weeds get BIG! The five us on that crew pulled out a few gigantic piles of grass and other miscellaneous invasive plants and only made a tiny dent in the work. Without the help of any motorized tools, the work is incredibly intense, but satisfying. Kudos to Carlyn for her patience and hard work, which brings food to the guests of the hostel on a daily basis.

After the work was done, a dip in the lake was in order. Did I mention that it was about 95 degrees and sweltering? The hostel swimming hole is crystal clear and was the perfect temperature to cool off without getting a chill. There is a platform in the middle where swimmers (in various levels of dress) lay in the sun and hang out.

After my swim and a refreshing shower, a few of us worked together to fill up paper bags with sand and candles for a candle-lit walk in the labyrinth. By the time we had finished we had placed about 500 candles along the borders of the path through the labyrinth. After dinner, another crew headed over to the labyrinth to light the candles. About 15 minutes into the lighting, the sound of thunder began to reverberate through the trees. Luckily the rain held off long enough for some of us to get a short walk in, but before long it was pouring rain.
I decided that I should take this as a lesson in non-attachment instead of getting upset that we had worked for hours and only had 15 minutes to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Brad and I were lucky enough to be staying in the tree house overlooking the labyrinth, so we hunkered down and watched the candles flicker in the rain before we fell into a deep sleep. In the morning, believe it or not, there was one candle still flickering.

I led a slower paced, more meditative yoga class on Sunday morning. We finished up with a sitting meditation, which Becca Sweeney led us through. Becca started out by describing why she sees meditation and asana (poses) as "twins." History tells us that the poses we do in yoga were developed in ancient times as a way to train the body for long periods of sitting. Likewise, the breath and movement in an asana class, prepare the mind for the stillness required for meditation. So...meditation originally led to the development of asana and asana made meditation easier. This reminds us that the real reason for the asana practice if to prepare us for meditation.

The weekend was exactly what I was hoping for and I am talking to Murray about planning another retreat for the fall. When we get the details worked out I'll post some info on my site.

Finally, I'd like to send special kudos to the hostel staff - thanks to Murray and Poppy for helping to organize the retreat and take care of all of the reservations and logistics; thanks to Southwood, Peaches, Fresh Ginger and the other kitchen angels for the delicious meals; thanks to Carlyn for the wonderful produce that went into the meals, and thanks to Molly for leading the way in our labyrinth cleanup. A special thanks to Tom for sharing his retreat in the forest with the rest of us. The folks who live and work at the hostel keep this beautiful place going so that people like me can come get away from our 21st century lives and reconnect with what is really important.