Gardenia group May 11

Our discussion group wasn't very useful. The sister who was facilitating described herself as very shy. Consequently, I couldn't hear a word she said. When we went around the group telling who we were; where we were from;and one thing that made us happy today, I did say that I was old and my ears don't work that great and it would be helpful if she spoke up some. Not much difference. At the end when people were sharing I think I understood her to say she was 45 and had been raised by a couple of aunts. Later maybe 20 years ago she was reunited with her parents and something about hugging her father. anyway, I just had to breathe and let it go - that I was not going to hear anything from sister in the group and that was the case. Fortunately, I could hear some of the other participants.

Kim from Switzerland and Michigan was in my group, or rather I asked to be in her group when I didn't have a group as I knew it would be in English. She has an eleven year old daughter Jasmine who loves horses. Many of this Group turned out NOT to be teachers. One handsome Spaniard was a carpenter. Somehow they just must have heard about this retreat and wanted to come.

One woman from Spain I think was talking about her daughter being kidnapped for 23 months! Not sure if I got that story straight. (I learned later from someone that this woman was from Serbia or one of those former Yugoslavia countries. Her daughter is an engineer who was 30 when she was kidnapped, because some group didn't want built whatever she was working on! She's now 33 and was here in BCN.

Kim shared about her daughter having a mindful birthday party where they did different activities like eating the birthday cake mindfully. And it was a sleepover with 8 eleven year olds all doing Noble Silence at night! Very cute! Jasmine had been to Plum Village with her mom.

There was an architect from Geneva and also a woman I had seen before with Michael (Phap Son) who said she was a facilitator for the Wake Up tour in the UK and that's where she is from. She looked Latin American but is from England. I met her later; her name is Elena.

The group was actually pretty quiet and didn't share a whole lot, compared to other groups I've been in at other retreats. We only met twice. Then after the last session to close the retreat, we all walked together along with the other groups through BCN streets down to the Arch de Triumph and park for the flash mob meditation. We joined 100s of others already waiting for Thay. He led a maybe 30 minute meditation and then talked after the monastics did some chanting. I heard there was a good write up in the local paper but I didn't see it.

After that, Kim, who was headed back to Zurich tomorrow, and I found a place for dinner and shared two different I fish crepes and some sangria. We had a nice visit and chat and then walked back near her hostel. but when I tried to get on the metro there, we discovered it was 1 am and they were CLOSED! I ended up taking a taxi all the way back my dorm. The driver was great! When he got lost, he shut off the meter. I was so happy to get home, instead of paying him the 14 euros, he got 20!!! Had a great night's sleep and in the morning lounged around until the luggage for the monastics who were moving in here for the five day course arrived and we put it in a vacant room. They came about 3 and Doug had a lot of frustrations with room arrangements and I don't think he was feeling very well.