Adventures of Therese Yakshi Tales of a woman in midlife gone wild and free.
Introduction
On September 4th 2001, I packed up my little mazda compact and launched a ten week "pilgrimage" into the wilderness and into my internal wild woman in solitary retreat. My goal was to visit a few of the sacred places in Idaho, Utah, Arizona and California; mountains, canyons, old growth forests, and ruins left by the ancient Anasazi peoples; to sleep under the open sky, listening to and learning from nature and spirit. My inner intention was to move beyond my mind’s chatter, the mental paradigms and other habits that seemed to be holding me back from fully experiencing the here and now and deeper spiritual awakening.
From all appearances, my life had fallen apart. I had suddenly and mysteriously been discharged from the job that had given me a sense of mission and kept me very busy for 13 years; this on the heels of the previous year when I felt in a huge wave of career-type successes. I seemed to be learning first-hand about flow and ebb, failure following success. In another arena, it had already been clear that my lover had little energy and no great love for me; not long after my job ended, the relationship completely unravelled a pivotal event that pierced my heart, providing another opportunity for me to see my dependencies, blind spots, and the deep grief I was still carrying from my past. And then there I was: no job, no lover; my identity and major source of comfort ripped away! It was clearly the opportunity I had been praying for (though I didn’t know it would look like this!): time to find out who I was beneath the superficial, and to live outdoors, learning from Great Spirit and Mother Nature without needing to be responsible to a work situation or a relationship.
This is the first in a series of 3 chakra paintings I did while on this trip; it shows how I visualized my internal landscape at the onset of this journey. The writing in the bottom corner of this painting says: "The challenge is to clear away the toxic thought patterns that collapse me into my pain body and grief, bind my heart and throat, cloud my vision-mind and my ability to be grounded in the fullness and wholeness of my energy body and be one with all!
(Note: you can see an enlarged version of all the pictures on this blog by clicking on the picture.)
This is the second chakra painting I did. I was visualizing rivers of fire and water within me. The energy is beginning to flow more.
This is the third painting I did. Such movement! The trip was an awesome, transformative journey! The combination of many weeks of soltitude plus the awe-inspiring wild places I visited took me into new terrain within myself. I received many powerful teachings from the Standing Tall people (trees), the Stone People and wild creatures, large and small.
In the following writings are excerpts from my journal (indicated by italics), from e-mails I sent home during my travels, plus additions and edits I have done since returning. I am also including photos, poems, and paintings done along the way. My intention in sharing all this in this way is threefold: first, it has provided an opportunity for me to pull together what I learned from the journey in a creative work of sorts (this blog); second, many friends have asked about my trip and this was a fun way to pull it together for people; and third, I hope you, the reader, will be inspired and perhaps undertake a journey of this sort (however it may look) yourself. Please let me know your responses to the story by e-mailing me.
Click the links below to go directly read my reflections at each destination, or you can navigate via the bar on the right side of this page.
PS: Many thanks to my dear daughter Ariel who provided the encouragement, technical support and web-address for me to do this!
welcome!
This is my record of the two month long roadtrip I took through the Southwest Fall of 2001.
If you'd like to read about the evolution Sacred Groves, my eco-retreat moonlodge, click here. Regardless, please email me and let me know what you think!
destinations
Click the links below to go directly read my reflections at each destination.
Therese Yakshi lives on an island in Washington state, where she runs a tiny moonlodge eco-retreat and counseling center. She is a registered nurse, licensed midwife, and worked for almost 15 years as the Academic Director of a regional midwifery school. If you have any questions about what you read on these pages, or would like to talk to her about visiting the moonlodge, you can email Therese.
Ariel made this site for her mother, inspired by both Choire's mom, Jackie, and Therese's stories of her epic road trip. Ariel figured it was time for her mother to have her own story on the web. She hopes you agree. If you see something broken or not working on this page, you can email Ariel.
This page was originally made using Blogger, but the format turned out to be non-Blogger friendly, and so it was handcoded by Ariel, using Blogger's template.
