Wednesday, July 15

Today I feel like rambling. Tomorrow I will have been here a week. I arrived last Tuesday at night so I don’t count Tuesday. Elena and Francesco bought the farm about 40 years ago. There were no roads and everything here needed repair. The guest house at the retreat is well over 1,000 years old. It was built by monks and is even older then the closest town, Monticello Amiata. I ask Elena how long ago she had the idea for the retreat and she said she knew right away. No roads and crumbling buildings they built this together. No doubt she made it happen. The retreat is booked by outside organizations so it can be used for yoga, artist, dance ect. Enrica handles the retreat , making the soaps and the handles the sale of all the products. Some of the olive trees are very old and some are newer. They have red and white grapes and I am guessing it is the newest addition. There are not a lot of vines, 2 small fields. The garden is not as big as it has been in past years. They made the choice to go smaller for now. Maybe many reasons, there is a lot going on here. Also, Francesco just had surgery and is recovering. They are gone for 4 days to see his doctors. I miss her. He is very nice and we see him a little but Elena is boss. She is always around us. I don’t think it is because of his health, I think she is always boss. She is special. To and I talk about it a lot. She is wise and very direct. I think a sensitive or immature person might not be able to handle her. I already get sad thinking about leaving her and her family.

This work is hard physically. It is the hottest summer in record here in Europe. That is the reason we work about 5 hours day. Of course it doesn’t stop then. We still have things to do. It is living.

The workaway’s are all here for the same reasons. We are all on similar but different journeys. We are all doing this for a long time not one time. To, Kees and I say a year and John does not know yet. He also sold everything and is just starting his journey. We are all homeless, stripped of our comforts to be here. We have the bare minimum belongs. I am already sending things home to Tori. My hair dry blew up, which I thought it might. I am letting go of the girly Amy. We are all reading books about letting go of our egos or cutting of the voice in our head. The voice is our ego right? Some people don’t realize that. It is so easy to become the voice and never be in reality. John and I are practicing meditation. We are in search of our new purpose and a more meaningful intentional life. I know that we were suppose to start this together. I know this was meant to be my first stay and it was meant to be with these people. We are not young, old, woman, man. Our nationality or sexuality do not matter. We are just human. We have deep conversations about our past and the world. We all want peace within us and around us. The number one thing is to love everyone. Even the people we don’t agree with or their choices. LET THEM AND HAVE COMPASSION FOR THEM. It is not your journey. Most of all, love yourself and your life. You are choosing it. That is the work and it is hard.