At the start of the month we waved off Shubhavyuha, who is off on sabbatical for six months in Australia. There was actually a second secret farewell 12 hours after she set off – her initial journey was delayed by 10 hours, having spent the entire day sat stationary on the motorway behind an accident! Fortunately her flight was the next morning, so a midnight drive to Heathrow got her there in time.
It was lovely to have the College here this month, it seemed like a very relaxed meeting and the operations team really delight in hosting them. We then had a quiet week (lots of delicious experimental meals coming out of the kitchen) in terms of retreats, but welcomed the new women’s DharmaLife course!
The communities and DharmaLife course gathered together to meet each other and had an evening in the beams ‘conversation cafe’ style, facilitated by Jayadhi.
Varadhi has been here since the end of her time on the Gower retreat and has been an absolute star, stepping in to support the DharmaLife course in their first week when Prajnanita came down with covid and had to isolate.
We also had another month of wonderful volunteers! Laura from Sheffield was out in the garden for a few weeks making Sanghadeva very happy. Then Onni from Finland came back and helped with maintenance and was a very good chopper in the kitchen, and now we have Romi from Mexico City for a little while before she goes on retreat at Tiratanaloka.
We are finishing off the month with a big combined Sanghas retreat, looking at the Taste of Freedom, and bringing together sanghas from various countries, with groups in several different languages.
