August 31/12 – It’s hard to believe that the 10 days of annual Personal Growth Retreat in Silver Bay on Lake George is coming to an end today. This year, there were a total of 300 adults and 62 children. There were 9 in our group (Eric, Janey, Katelyn, Kristen, Allen, Samantha, Marco, Deon and me). I hope that Pan, Monjie, Jordon and Lisa’s family and Anne’s family would join us next year. This place is such an amazing place to bond with closed ones. I love the people around here, the surroundings of nature and the lake that is really beautiful. The things I learned in our daily lessons on “Recognition” were awesome. The many activities conducted were also very amazing. The time spent with Janey, Eric, the kids and friends such as Maurice, Allan, Marco, Chris, Danny and Jack was very precious to me.
I still can recall today where I was emotionally and mentally a year ago. I could not have hypothesized that this is where I would be today last summer when I was here. I have given up on trying to imagine where I would be the following year after my upcoming 8 months of backpacking trip…. But then, it’s really not important to try and predict anymore. What is important now is that I am starting to enjoy living in the moment and “being present” to just enjoy the journey regardless of where that would take me to……
A big change in me over the last 10 days is that I have overcome the fear of listening to “new songs” on my own. Janey showed me how to look for new songs on YouTube and to my surprise, I was open to that for the first time in a long time and heard some amazing new songs. For some weird reasons, I was not open to researching for new songs at all over the last 20 years. Little did I realize how I was limiting myself. I can now listen to and appreciate music so much more today than I ever did in the past. Now, I can just sit by the lake all by myself and enjoy listening to music alone for the first time. Such a good place to be in…. 🙂
The highlight of this retreat was meeting a really interesting guy on the porch by the kayak rental place on day 6 of my being here. After talking to him for 2.5 hrs, I felt so inspired that I might consider traveling alone if I can’t find a travel companion by the time De goes back to school and assuming I still will want to continue travelling. His name is Jim, a holder of a PHD in public health. He’s an American but has been living in Asia for the last 30 years and has chosen to retire in Phuket, Thailand. He comes back to this YMCA every summer to teach meditation and yoga classes for 2 months without pay but is content on being given free room and board. His purpose is just to be here to visit family and since he grew up coming here every year. His brother works in the equipment rental area where we get canoes and kayaks. He thanked me for listening to his offshore stories for so long. He says that for the whole summer, everyone was only able to hear him for a couple of minutes then say, “Oh that’s nice” or “That’s cool” but no one genuinely was as interested as I was. Obviously that’s because I am on a travel journey now myself. He actually gave me a few good tips that I will surely find helpful when I get to Malaysia next year.
We are going to spend 4 days in New York City before going back to Vancouver. I decided to revisit NYC since I didn’t like it at all 8 years ago. Since I am a much different person today, I hope my experience of NY will also be very different this time….
Originally posted on Amy’s travel blog: TravelwithAmy.ca