- Choose a destination, for example, camping with a bunch of wild women intent on sharing and learning belly dance skills.
- Spend a week preparing for the trip, which in this case needed equipment for camping, working out and dancing.
- Go to destination and live big–including lots of physical and mental exertion as well as exorbitant photo taking.
- Come home and plop on the couch to recover.
- Spend days in a daze recovering and wondering how long it will take to get your laundry done, while getting caught up at work and editing and uploading photos.
The final step not included in the original 5 steps is a period of reflection and journal, for example this post. It was an amazing trip. The location Camp Delaney was beautiful. There was tale of snakes and scorpions but I saw none and figured if I did we’d find a way to get along.
I learned a lot of in the workshops. I still can’t even process it all. Last weekend, myself and two other women who went dancing in the dessert one night (troupe 2:48) performed at the 1st Saturday hafla. I got to use some of my new skills in that performance but it was freeform and unstructured. I think that night we danced in the dessert was one of the most spiritual moments I’ve had in my lifetime.
Despite the exertion (yoga, workshops, swimming, dancing from 9 am to 12 pm), it was well worth it and not something I would pass on in the future. It felt good to learn and push myself, while still having a grand time with wonderful like-minded women.
As usual, I took a lot of photos.
