On April 5th, I finally started the Suncokret blog, mentioning that we have several announcements to make. The first was the launch of our new website which is nearly 1 month old now and which has been warmly received, much to my relief.
I feel lucky that my first yoga teacher, Jana Colonna, allowed me to watch over her shoulder as she built our first website for us way back in the day. From that time forward, I have been designing and managing our website on my own (a useful skill for any entrepreneur to have), though my skills did not grow much without my dear mentor beside me and thus over the past few years our website was feeling very flat and rather messy.
Moving on to another website format - a modernized version complete with phone-friendly viewing (among other fancy things) and a blog space was a huge and rather scary but absolutely needed step forward. I spent many a long hour sitting in a chair this winter, fully immersed in the process, unable to do much else for fear of loosing the momentum I was building daily, weekly, monthly...
I won't even go into what a frustrating mystery the last details proved to be prior to launching it, like managing SEO ratings and other such technical matters. I am certain I grew double the amount of grey hairs in these past few months and my mild case of sciatica did get rather less mild after all that sitting... but I survived, and all the hard work is paying off in various ways. Alleluia!
However, all the while I was growing and developing this new website, I was growing and developing something much more profoundly important and life-changing for Stipe and myself and our retreat... a little human being!
Yes, you understood me right.
Your teacher and friend, Evening Marie, is pregnant, at age 44... writing this blog post just one day away from the predicted due date of our precious little one!
This will be my second child in 21 years and Stipe's first! And yes, (for those of you who know me) I am doing it all over again, which is either very brave or very silly. But this time circumstances are vastly different than they were for me at age 23 (more about that in another post when I talk more about the Life Path Awakening process).
In any case, you can imagine how this life-altering state of affairs might have been influencing our decision-making process regarding how to continue onwards with the retreat. After all, for the past 12 years, Suncokret has been like a child to us, demanding nearly all our attention and investment - physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
We conceived it from the seeds of our love and imagination, gifts and natural talents, and nurtured it patiently through an incubation process that lasted, ironically, about 9 months from start to finish. And then, one fine spring day in June, our company was born. And ever since, we have watched it grow and develop, go through its ups and downs, and thankfully flourish and mature into its own strong sense of being. And we are proud of our accomplishement and humbled by it all the same.
Suncokret has been and will always be our first baby, but like with every child, parents must figure out the right time to let go a little, to give their offspring the space and room needed to mature into their own fullest expression, with the help of friends and other mentors.
The 2015 season in front of us is the exactly that moment. And now our loyal friends will understand why so many special events led by other teacheres are taking place at Suncokret this year... (and this new groove will continue for the forseeable future.)
Since my birthday last year, when we saw our new baby's first ultrasound image and realized the great impact this beautiful soul being would have our our life and work together, we have been working tirelessly toward setting the final foundational elements in place that would allow our Suncokret to continue its journey to fruition in the hands of trusted friends and collegues who shall be taking on the important task of leading a range of inspirational holistic yoga and healing programs in my stead. Their influence on Suncokret will bring far-reaching effects. Of that I am sure... and very excited about, too!
Now, obviously as parents of Suncokret, we will still be here to guide and assist in this newest stage of life for our beautiful and precious retreat, while simultaneously focusing on welcoming our latest child into the world and sharing the blessings of her light with all our friends and family abound.
What an exciting journey, indeed!
So, at the end of this post, I warmly invite you to take your time to look through the enticing lineup of 2015 events with visiting teachers at Suncokret this year, in addition to the interview series on this very blog page, where we introduce you each week to these amazing visiting teachers in a more personal way so that you may come to know them for the unique light they bring to our space, prior to signing up.
2015 is proving to be a year of profound birth, growth and opportunity and we sincerely look forward to sharing this experience with you! Namaste.