Highland Women’ Retreat Pt2

In Part 1 of this story, we learned about a women’s retreat being held at the Monterey Campground in August. We spoke to Kalunyahawi Traveler, who is leading the retreat, and noted it was intended for both those experienced with such events, as well as novices, so I asked what the attendees could expect.

“Well, first of all, to expect nothing, (laughs) because someone told me a long time ago, expectations are resentments in construction. So really, I say to come with an open heart and open mind.”

“I have a link to a landing page, https://kalunyahawi.my.canva.site/coming-home-2-self-retreat, and I invite people to journey to go and click the link, and they can read all the things that I’ve written, they can see pictures of the campground, of the land, and then my contact information is there so that they can reach out with any questions that they may have. But this is really a retreat to return back to Mother Earth. So no matter what a person’s background is, their spiritual and/or religious beliefs are – everybody can debate where the soul goes, but nobody debates where the earth robe-that’s what we call the body – everybody’s going back to the earth.”

“So, before Europeans came, and electricity, and the houses and all the things, we spent a lot of time with the earth. Our ancestors did, no matter where we come from, and technology and times being so fast, it has separated us from the Earth. And every person I’ve ever talked to says that they just feel calmer, more connected to nature – by the water, they like fishing, they like going canoeing, they like camping. So I ask people to sit and ask, ‘why do you think that is?’. If you look at the rings of a tree, it matches our fingerprint. If you look at the branches of the roots of a tree underneath the earth, it matches the branches in our lungs. I mean, we’re very, very connected.”

“So when one comes, one comes with an open heart and open mind to know that this is a guide to remember our natural set of instructions, which is to calm our nervous system. We need to be still and we need to be quiet. And the best teacher for that is the earth, because as a wise cardinal once said, his name is Cardinal Sarah, he wrote a book called The Power of Silence, and in that book, he says that noise is addictive, deceptive, and a false tranquilizer. So, as humans, we use noise to remove ourselves from listening to the voice of God, Creator, whatever it is you want to call it. That is within, not without – not in a building, buildings are great, we go there, we gather, but it’s really within.”

“And so, this is what this retreat is about. Women have their choice to come and camp in a tent, or they have their choice to be a part of the bunkhouse that Annette offers there at the campground. There’s six beds, five spots left, it’s first come, first serve. And we will have it catered, so there’ll be vegan food, even if they eat meat, just gonna eat very clean, very organically, and women just need to come and trust the process.”

“And we’re gonna do a lot of cool things, and we are going to remember how to gather as women, because we have forgotten. We’ve been so busy. There’s single moms that (have) got to do two roles, and they (have) got to work. And there’s so many hats, and we’re so busy. Especially as we age, we need to remember to gather with other women. We love our men. We’re grateful for them. But no one can remind me how to be a woman other than another woman.”

The Monterey Campground is a supporter of Allegheny Mountain Radio.