Hi All,

It's been a roller-coaster year! Since January, my father was diagnosed with cancer and to date has had one surgery, a round of chemo, a round of radiation, and two other hospital stays. At times it's been a tremendously stressful and confusing experience, at others I've felt our relationship grow closer. The waves illness makes across a family can not be overestimated and something that I want to write about in the near future.

My father's diagnosis created an opportunity and a urgency to reflect on how my life is lived, what I've been overlooking, how I've been 'slipping' and how I prefer to create my present and my future. I guess my level of awareness and consciousness increased as existential questions took shape.

You may know that my husband is the mastermind behind The Barkan Method of Hot Yoga. An incredible world-traveler and yoga teacher, we just returned from his 18th year doing a retreat in Costa Rica. The power of retreat ... to literally stand back, to soften and find peace, to breathe into the tight places, experience beauty and see life with a broader perspective. I tapped into feeling healthier, eating healthier, thinking healthier once I was able to step outside of my daily life.

The implication this has for my relationships is that as we relax, give ourselves permission to step back from worrying, our relational 'space' expands and changes. If our space is a garden, retreat has the power to water and flourish that which has been overlooked.

Marriage/Couples Retreats can have a significant impact on one's life and my goal is to create an opportunity for couples to retreat...to find their connection again, strengthen the connection they do have, shift perspective of their partner and relationship, find mental and emotional peace, and enhance the quality of the experience of marriage. More information will be provided once a location, time, and date has established.