2022 Schedule
Hello, dear Sangha and Sangha-to-be! Just like last year, regarding our Wattle Hollow events: ONLY FULLY VACCINATED FOLKS WILL BE WELCOME. So you beautiful soulful millennials and others who are on the fence about this issue, it’s time to get in line for your vaccination if you want to come to Wattle Hollow programs this spring and summer and fall. The booster is also something I heavily encourage! There will probably be more dates and events scheduled than are listed below, but this is the schedule that I can foresee for now. Blessings to...
READ MORE / RegisterTales of Joy 2022 #9
Heading south to SDS II, known as Bodhisattva Valley, we began to feel lighter and lighter. Nawng Joy, Aey and I have a way of sparking each other into silly happiness. Here we are at a lunch stop along the way. Yes, rice paddies are really that green. I packed pillows and extra towels and bedding into my luggage, in order to survive a week of sleeping directly on the cement floor like I did two years ago. And ear plugs, to drown out the snoring nuns in the next room, and barking dogs. And sheets of seaweed, cashews and supplements, cause...
READ MORE / RegisterTales of Joy 2022 #8
Hello, dear readers, or sawadhi kha. I’m here at the center now, in Bangkok. My dearest friends Nawng Joy and Aey picked me up at the fancy hotel where I was quarantined. They had spent all day, like many other days, in conferences about the future of S.D.S. now that Khun Mae is gone. Nawng Joy explained that my home here had been uninhabitable until VERY recently: i.e. just before I arrived. She had appealed to a young and wealthy Thai entrepreneur who is a passionate volunteer here at Sathien Dhamma Sathan, explaining that Pa Joy (Auntie...
READ MORE / RegisterTales of Joy 2022 #7
Greetings, dear readers…. From 30,000 feet up in the air! I realized, in the middle of this 11-hour flight, that there is another Tale to be told, between the Baja and Thailand (where I’ll be, in eighteen more hours en sh’allah). And this is my only chance to write it. Maria, wife of Odin, at the bird sanctuary I said goodbye to my sacred spots, took a couple outings with my host family, and taught a few more yoga classes to my “roomies” at the hacienda, After one final sunrise meditation, Maria drove me to the bus station. And later at...
READ MORE / RegisterTales of Joy 2022 #6
Hello again, dear readers. This will be, I suspect, my last Tale from the Baja. As is often the case with liminal experiences, (the frontier between two perceived phenomenon – e.g. sunrise, sunset, birth or “death,” as we like to call it) …my senses are heightened today, especially with the fullness of the moon and the prospect of leaving Mexico very soon. Visiting with the whales seems to have filled a deep longing that has been en utero for almost fifty years…since my husband Merlin and I forlornly released our dream of...
READ MORE / RegisterTales of Joy 2022 #5
Hello again, dear readers. Having shared the beauty of my landlord Clemente in the last Tale, I thought it would be fair to also feature Carmen and her family. The mom (Rosa, in pink) teaches ancient history at the university here. Dad tinkers with his enormous collection of antique clocks and watches. Yesterday, we all sat in the patio and I shared pranayama and yoga for a couple hours, while they took turns entertaining the indefatigable Alba Maria. I am writing this from Puerto Adolfo Lopez de Mateo, a town to the north of La Paz near...
READ MORE / RegisterTales of Joy 2022 #4
Hello again, dears. In case some of you looked at, but didn’t actually “see” my landlord Clemente, in Tales #3…. I wanted to give y’all another opportunity. … to understand the nature of my home here, a personal Museo Folklorico that he has created: Each corner has a theme, not unlike Wattle Hollow.left, music…to the right, social consciousness. I originally had plans to stay here in the Baja for a month. Obviously, that “plan” (5555; the word “five” in Thai is pronounced “ha”) fell by the wayside, because Thailand locked...
READ MORE / RegisterTales of Joy 2022 #3
Hello again, dear readers. Thanks again for your heartfelt response to the Tales. You might be surprised to know how very vulnerable I feel when I send them out. The mural (below) is new this year…. It is near my morning meditation spot on the bay. I’ve been studying the difference between looking and seeing, for decades. For instance, I had looked at the mural above and admired it a couple times before, but didn’t actually “see” it until after I had expanded my rainbow radius one morning last week. I finally saw that the man is...
READ MORE / RegisterTales of Joy – 2022 #2
Hello again, dear readers. Thank you for your very kind response to the first Tales. This #2 will not be as action-packed. Like many Boomers my age, I am merely sitting out the winter, with very little human interaction, waiting for this insanely infectious Omicron variant to run its course. This is not a loss for me. I relish the time to invest in my own inner landscape….like my “Honeymoon with God” time during my solo summer meditation retreats. My wonderful hosts here are keeping quite a distance now, too, for their own sake and mine....
READ MORE / RegisterTales of Joy – 2022
Hello dear readers. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? So many of you, especially longtime readers, either sweetly or plaintively, inquired about the loss of these Tales the last two years…. Plus, my teacher and Astral Tour Guide, Anna Cox, made it abundantly clear in November that I WOULD resume this year. The ghoul in the photo above is Anna’s husband Jim. I visited them on Halloween, as I was passing through Little Rock on my way to Washington, D.C. (It is also, of course, a symbol of the “Maya”/delusion, in which so many are swirling these...
READ MORE / RegisterAbout Dharma Days
Dharma Days are a one-day opportunity, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., to take a personal tour in the Theravadan Vipassana meditation traditional practices of sitting, walking, eating and loving-kindness/metta. It’s a great chance for beginning meditators to get their feet wet, and for oldies to refresh their practice. We also do a mild 50-minute stretching/yoga/or creative movement session. An organic vegetarian lunch will be served. No charge for this day, though dana/donations are accepted. See Registration Form below to register. We will have chairs...
READ MORE / RegisterNature Day
Saturday, April 23, 2022 I am happy to announce the convergence of THREE delightful naturalists who will lead us in our exploration of springtime wonders on this Saturday’s hike: -Joe Neal – the “Bird Guy” who is well-known in the region and an avid environmentalist.-Colby Marshall – whom I think of as the “Frog Guy”, who does environmental impact statements for a living…and is the closest neighbor to Wattle Hollow.-Bo Verser – the “Bug Guy”, and also an avid environmentalist/ photographer. (see more about Bo and other...
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Wattle Hollow is a relatively small retreat center (40 acres of woodlands on a mountainside in Northwest Arkansas) with capacity for 20 - 25 folks.