From Wednesday evening July 2nd until Sunday afternoon July 6th we will gather at the lovely Maanhoeve at the Dutch countryside for our annual Wake Up Netherlands summer retreat. We welcome you for four days of practicing being mindfully ‘lazy’.

You may think: do I really need to practice being lazy? How hard can it be…..? But is that really true? Within this busy, demanding modern world, so many of us struggle to really stop and fully rest and develop the capability to truly listen to what our bodies and minds need. So yes, resting can be a practice, maybe even an art.

During these four days we offer a relatively low-key programme compared to some other Wake Up retreats, to enable us to explore this practice. Together we will reflect on the questions: What do I need in this moment? And how can I take good care of myself without completely withdrawing myself from the people and world around me?

Sometimes we might really enjoy the company of other people around us, other times it can be hard to express what you feel, experience or need, or you might feel as if you’re letting others down by choosing to care for yourself, making it hard to set boundaries and communicate clearly and lovingly about them.

But together we might even discover that taking care of others and of the world around us starts with taking care of ourselves, and that we cannot be there for others if we cannot be there for ourselves. And others might just be able to help us with that 😉 Caring for me, caring for you… Will you join us?

For registration and more information, please e-mail to sangha@wkup.nl. Or take a look at www.demaanhoeve.nl for an impression of the place we will stay (no English translation available though).

Language information: during the retreat, we will be (most likely) providing English translation for non-Dutch speakers. Four sisters from the EIAB will also join us and they don’t speak Dutch either =)

Costs: €100,- for camping and €120,- for a bed in shared room (2 to 8 people), plus dana (a voluntary gift to facilitators Wim and Ida, and Wake Up Netherlands, as we are keeping the costs of the retreat to a bare minimum to allow as many people as possible to come). If these minimum costs still form an obstacle for your participation, please contact us at sangha@wkup.nl to discuss the possibilities for sponsorships.

Inspirational poem “Let me rest for a while” by Br. Phap Linh
Let me rest for a while
Let me enjoy the cold and the sunlight,
The soft falling oak leaves
And the blue-white sky
I have struggled so long,
Let me rest a while –
I have struggled so long
To prove myself to myself,
Myself to others, to try
To be worthy of their love –
To try to prove I loved them.
Now I start to see
That I am neither lacking nor complete
And I let the burden of ages,
of generations softly down;
I put it down with all my love –
We did not know we were carrying it –
We did not catch the haunted look in the mirror –
We did not understand why we had no peace –
And it is only as I start to put it down,
To let it go,
That I see it for what it is;
I have been running for a long time –
Now I allow myself to stop and enjoy.