The never ending retreat- Part 1

The Australian Retreat at the Bunya Mountains is about 3.5 hours drive from where I live in Brisbane, Queensland. I share a house with 3, sometimes 5, other Gnostics, but there have been recent times when we have had close to 12 Gnostics staying overnight, and much more than that dropping in to pay a visit.

When the Bunya retreat ended, we didn't really want it to, and we didn't want to lose the group strength and feelings of unity and friendship that had been forged, so we invited some people back to our place for a cup of tea and a bite to eat while they waited for their planes etc.

We arrived back home early in the afternoon and tea and biscuits were the first thing on the agenda.

AJ and Carolyn regale Sabah and Matthew with tales of the retreat while Dave chooses the perfect biscuit to go with his cuppa.

Siva sits quietly at the end of the table- I am sure he knows that many more people are coming back and tea and biscuits just won't make the grade after all the good eating we had at the retreat.

Jan, my Mum who was also at the retreat, gives Jon a lesson in choosing and then cutting up the perfect Mango.

Mmm, mango.

It's only been a few hours now since we left the Bunya Mountains, but already Tony and Chris are missing it and try to recreate the feel of sitting around the fire in our lounge room.

But really, fire on a tv screen just isn't the same.

They realised that living in the past doesn't really get us far and that existence in the present moment is much more beneficial.

More than a few people took up the offer of hospitality, all welcome of course, and so a feast was prepared ...

As Adam tucks into his dinner, the catch up talk continues and people share their tales.

Dean has seen the food and from that smile I would say that he is pretty pleased with whats on the menu.

And it was good food too- a flavoursome curry and plenty of salads to go around.

 

Though Alejandro doesn't seem to be eating- perhaps he is explaining to Nash and Sophios the intricacies of a vegan diet.

Nash doesn't seem to mind, but Sophios looks shocked.

Alejandro sees he can eat everything on the menu, well almost.

Aleksander doesn't see what all the fuss is about and gets into dishing up some dinner.

It was a really good atmosphere having so many people in our house. It is a fairly big place, 5 bedrooms and a couple of entertaining areas, but everyone pitched in with cooking and getting things organized so it became a very warm and friendly, cosy situation.

But no matter the environment something always seems to happen when people mention 'doing the dishes ...'

Cameron and Tony discuss some inventive ways to deal with the situation, while Carl, Cam N, Dave and Tim relax (or hide?) in the lounge room.

Steve is too busy getting pointers from Dave on how to improve his stand-up routine, while Jon and Trent enjoy a game of Mancala.

Jon: "Another game?"

Trent: "Bring it on."

Steve: "Oh Yeah, another game."

Colm: "Great, another game."

Nash and I become preoccupied with studying the $1, 000, 000 bill someone placed in the donations bowl.

Behind us Kurt, the accountant, was wondering if there might be a place open that could exchange that for some small change.

Adam prepares the Ping Pong (or table tennis) area in anticipation for the inevitable face off between himself and Mr Kurt V. (green t-shirt)

The Ping Pong table takes up the main living space in our house and is a handy tool for seeing egos in the motor centre ;-)

Although rivalries can ignite and often the ball has been known to 'dissapear' into jinas, sent there by a forceful, competitive swing of the pong paddle :-(

Despite the large number of people, there were a few games that were played that night but I can't say for sure who won the coveted "King Pong" trophy that resides atop our stereo.

Siva explains the amazing game of Mancala that happened earlier.

But Cameron gets distracted with Chris looking at that $1 million bill.

Patricia and Dimi shared a chat over the nice meal.

... I don't think Dimi wanted her picture taken.

Matthew was busted on my PC doing work for Gnosticweb.

I accidentally closed what he was working on without saving the changes too. whoops.

So after a bit more of a catch up ...

... and after I tried to recover what I had deleted from Matthews work,

I went outside to see if any more people were arriving and saw all the shoes.

22 pairs- quite symbolic I thought.

When I went back in there was talk of a group mantra and so we all settled down and got ready.

It was really good, I even recorded it with a little portable device but the batteries went flat, or the memory run out. Anyway something happened to it which meant I no longer have a copy.

Below is the group shot of all the people that ended up coming back to our place. It really was like an extended retreat and I think it gave everyone a taste of what it would be like if we could find our own place, a permanent retreat here in Australia.

Thanks to everyone that came over. It was really good to have that spirit of friendship carry over from the Bunya retreat back into the daily world.

Frontish Row: Carolyn, Carl, Dave H, Tony, Steve, Chris, Alejandro, Colm.

Middleish Row: Shannon (me), Jan (my mum), Dimi, Adam, Patricia.

Backish Row: Sophios, Tim, Cam Nash, Nash, Trent, Dave C, AJ, Dean, Cameron, Jon, Siva.