Spiritual Renewal Retreat

Please Note: We are considering cancelling this workshop due to low number of participants. If you are planning to come and haven’t let us know yet, please email us at nickyandjudy@gmail.com before Friday, April 29^th. Hoping we can still make a go of it! 🙂

“I pin my hopes to quiet processes and small circles, in which vital transforming events take place.” ~Rufus Jones

Does it sometimes seem like your life consists of rushing – from one pursuit to the next, one place to the next, leaving you feeling more like a human who is ‘doing’ than ‘being’? Are you longing for something else, something more?

When did the pilgrimage begin? When will it end? [An existential journey]

Ideas often come to us when we are walking our dog, Shanti – morning and evening. Two times a day we get to stretch our bodies and let our minds roam freely. We are not walking for five or six hours, day after day, for weeks on end as we did in Spain. But we do walk every day without fail. Lots of time for reflection. We are nearing the time when we flew to Madrid two years ago, to make the transition to Leon, where we began our Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. We began writing monthly reflections on the impact of walking the Camino almost a year ago, to check in with ourselves about whether this was just an experience we had that was fading into the background of our lives, or whether it has stayed with us. We figured we wouldn’t know if we didn’t set aside time to consider it. So here we are at the end of a year of reflection.

Now and Then – Then and Now – Step by Step

We often reflect on how walking the Camino helped us stay focused on the here and now and how easy it was to lose our way when not focused on the present moment. It seemed like we might only lose track of the yellow arrows or shells momentarily before we were wandering off the trail and onto another road or animal track – sometimes together, and sometimes even losing track of one another! The rhythm of walking could sometimes lull us into inattention of our guideposts. The realization that we had lost our markers helped us return our attention towards finding The Way again. Awareness seems key! And in life off of the Camino, one can “walk” a long way off the path before realizing we are in the weeds of our lives, so to speak.

Now that we are settled into Tiny and cozied up for the winter the universe is sending us gentle reminders not to get too cozy. For one thing, the land we are renting just sold! The new owners aren’t planning on moving out this way for over a year or more and they are quite happy to have us here in the meantime, but it’s still a reminder that we can’t be here forever.

Tiny’s First Power Outage!

 

We’ve been in Tiny just under 3 months now and as we’ve mentioned before it’s still a time for “firsts”. The past two days were no exception. Tiny just survived her first power outage, and it was a doozy. A little over 45 hours with no electricity!

Walking in a Relaxed Manner

“There is too much hurry and worry in our lives.” ~Joyce Rupp

Prior to arriving in Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago trail we promised ourselves to go at our own pace; to not get caught up in any kind of expectation of how many kilometers to walk a day or whether we’d make it to the “best places” to land. We were determined not to carry any anxiety or stress mixed in with our pared down backpack items. And for the most part we were successful.

Holiday Raw Nog :)

Thinking of this raw vegan nog today so reposting it! Interesting that I first posted it on my birthday last year :). Enjoy!!

Learning to Reawaken

Today is my birthday 🙂 (Nicky speaking) and traditionally, I like to offer others gifts on this day. So I’ve spent quite some time this past week having fun experimenting with creating a raw version of a holiday favorite – eggnog! In truth, I’ve never particularly liked the taste or idea of eggnog, but I do love the combo of spices, and I used to drink the soy alternative that “traditionally” shows up on grocery store shelves these days. When you look closely at the labels on these products you’ll often note the ubiquitous “natural flavors” as an ingredient. This is code for “we have a secret recipe and don’t have to share with you” (fair enough) yet more importantly, it’s also code of “since it’s a secret we can put anything we want into it”.  And in all likelihood, some of it isn’t particularly good for us!! Since I…

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Housewarming Gifts for Tiny :)

Now that Tiny has landed temporarily and we are cozying up for the winter, friends are wanting to offer housewarming gifts. It’s such a lovely tradition and we are so moved by this intention and care. We had no idea how many people we have known over the years have been following our unfolding adventure.

But…

Tiny’s Moments of Fame

Here are links to Tiny’s moments of media fame :). It’s a bit challenging to get a message across when there’s only about 2 minutes of air time, plus we don’t get to choose what of the 2 hours of videoing and interviewing gets into the final cut. Never would we have suspected Shanti’s elevator would have received so much attention, for instance. But happy that people can connect with the journey however they can!

CTV National News

Buzzfeed 11/27/2015

CTV Live at 5 interview 11/25/2015

CBC News 11/26/2015

CTV Live at 5 interview

CBC radio interview 5/23/2015

And we would remiss to not once again offer tremendous gratitude to Matthew Willox of Howlingdogconstruction.ca for his incredible work in creating Tiny! 🙂 Never to forget Matt’s patience as we all explored our ideas, requests, and questions. This is a work of art that emerged from the synergy of his skill and craft. And also from the friendship, kindness, creativity, and support of his family — Ashlee, Jai, Eli, Nuna, Joey & Dexter — and their neighbors (especially Joe!)

Finding Our Way

As we’ve begun to explore the woods behind Tiny on Shanti’s daily walks, we have been struck by the difference between walking here, in Ross Ferry, NS, and walking the Camino. The Camino has drawn pilgrims for thousands of years. There are dirt paths and cobbled roads and city sidewalks. Roman walls enclose some of the terrain. There are smaller and larger villages and even cities all along the way. There is even a given destination – Santiago de Compostela.

Behind our tiny house is forest. There are some paths – probably made by people logging in the past – but they are now covered with sphagnum, staghorn clubmoss, and other mosses and lichens we don’t easily identify, forming a soft green grey way. There are no yellow arrows or scallop shells to guide us. And it seems that other humans have not passed this way recently. There are fragments of old dishes on the red granite gravel road we walk up, but no footprints – not even of deer.

So Much Gratitude!

Tiny 🙂

Shanti knows it’s home 🙂

desk, living room

heat! (along with rocks from favorite places in hearth)

view into kitchen

The past 16 months have been filled with adventures, including house & pet sitting in various locations, as well as visiting and staying with generous friends (human and critter). Being “houseless” for this amount of time has us that much more appreciative and grateful for our recent move into Tiny :). Last night was our 4^th night in our own bed! (As of our last count, we had slept in over 40 beds and campsites while houseless.) Our belongings are slowly finding their resting spots in our new home and we are beginning to nest (and the bed in the loft really does feel quite nest-like!)