February 29 through March 2, 2008
How amazing and wonder-full it all was! Asilomar is the perfect venue. Even wandering lost and confused searching for our rooms is a pleasurable adventure. After dark it is even more challenging. Fortunately, there always seems to be someone nearby who is checking in and carrying a map that can be borrowed so the lost can determine if they are anywhere near their destination.
This year the agenda included Living the Law of Attraction, presented by Ann Cooke; Hiring the Heavens, by Diane Sickmen; Personal aromatherapy provided by Sarah Sutton; and Janet Savage gathered fingerprints from all participants in order to determine the collective WBE life purpose and challenge.
Living the Law of Attraction was Ann Cooke’s first public presentation on the subject, but certainly not her last. Her passion and love for the concepts shine through and as she refines her presentations it can only get better and better. It was an honor and a treat to be among her first audience. We had the privilege of witnessing the first step in the evolution of what must surely become a high class and very valuable set of seminars.
Personal aromatherapy — Sarah provided a beautiful array of essential oils and carriers for all of us to experience. The concept was for everyone to create their own combination of scents to allow is each to ground ourselves and return to the state of mind we enjoyed during this creative and fun activity. Thank you, Sarah, for allowing us to play among your treasures and helping us with our individual creations. Thank you also for using the retreat to announce your new business direction, healing gardens. One more thank you for the butterfly tattoos, the perfect emblem of emergence.
Hiring the Heavens — Diane gave the participants the gift of an angel support staff. Under her guidance everyone selected and defined a project, hired their teams and put them to work. My team is busy in the background. As I walked past my bookshelf this morning I noticed that they were highlighting all the source material I have on hand already. As much as I had hoped never to hold another staff meeting I know these will be better and much more productive.
Another delight Diane brought to the weekend (no, this isn’t about the margaritas, and those were a delight as well) — bubbles. While shopping for margarita makings she succumbed to an impulse; buy bottles of bubbles for everyone. During one break in the presentations, we all went out on to our private deck and spent some quality time getting reacquainted with the finer points of creating great clouds of gossamer soap bubbles. Linda, who is apparently in close communication with her inner child, showed us the way. We were a soapy, happy group.
The beach exercise must be a permanent item on the annual agenda — so cleansing. We all gathered on Sunday morning after breakfast to begin a silent walk to the beach. Once at the water’s edge the concept is to turn your back on the water and write in the sand what you would like to release from your life. Watch the waves take it away. The second stage of the exercise is to face the water and write in the sand what you want to attract into your life and then release it to the sea. Wading in the surf and getting sand between your toes, almost guaranteed to revive childhood memories. A bonus, watching small groups of middle aged women rediscover the pleasures of playing with soap bubbles. That was how we solved the conundrum of what to do with 18 partially used bottles of soap bubbles – gifting them to unsuspecting beach walkers.
Janet — WOW! She could not have come up with a better group life purpose for WBE if she had decided to make it up strictly from her imagination. That the result is truly a product of her reading and interpretation skills arising from our collective fingerprints makes it all the more amazing and even a bit “spooky” (was that one of the S words?) It was the perfect final act. We are truly “Successful Innovators In Business”.
Emily — you once again demonstrated that you throw a great party. As far as I’m concerned you can be named as permanent WWBE Retreat Happy Hour Hostess.
And to the remaining 10 participants (you all know who you are) — thank you for your sharing, your giving, your loving spirit, your playfulness, and almost any other heartfelt and bonding attribute that can be named. Are we a great group or what? Well fed too. I estimate that on Saturday alone, I was eating or had something to eat immediately available for 15 straight hours. If it wasn’t for the need to sleep I’m sure food would have been at hand somewhere from 3pm on Friday right up until the last vehicle pulled out on Sunday. (A big thank you to the creator of spandex and also to the clever person who decided it was a critical component of jeans.)
I can hardly wait to experience the new magic that will evolve at next year’s retreat. Start clearing your calendar now. You don’t want to miss it. —Kerry Hargraves
Women's Business Exchange Alameda, California 
