Summertime and the Living is Easy

It’s been seven months since I wrote my last blog post and everything is right on track. Suryalila continues to flourish.

My 60th birthday in February was fabulous….I had the best party ever in the Dome. My dear old friend Somesh sang a set of his own beautiful songs, giving his first ever solo performance! DJ Warrior One, AKA my dear friend Carl Faure from Stretch Yoga London, spun some sounds for us to dance to. A bunch of friends came from London as well as all of our local Spanish friends. Champagne flowed and I was showered with beautiful gifts and love. Thank you to everyone for celebrating with me.

The Dome has been completely finished since last spring. Now it feels like it has always been there, watching over us with its intense Buddha eyes. Tiffany Cruikshank has come and gone. Her retreat was fantastic…it went as well as I could have hoped on every level. She will be coming back in 2017. Yeah!!!

In July I held my biggest training ever with 54 participants here in the OM Dome in the middle of the raging heat of summer. It went extremely well, particularly as I held the retreat with the dream team of Alicia Bargh, Jennilee Toner and Carl Faure. We were all really happy with the experience, and the Dome stayed just cool enough. Our pool was full in all the breaks.

I am loving our stellar office team of Tanea, Alice, Lidiya and I. We are contagiously happy and things are really getting done. The Suryalila family really rocks! All of the staff are wonderful and amazing and sometimes it feels more like a love-fest than a business. Everyday I feel blessed and extremely grateful.

After a lot of umming and erring we are about to launch a project for a third small Yoga Hall which in the end will be an eco-project with a team of experts helping us. The new Yoga Hall in the olive grove will be for staff and independent guests as well as being a second massage space. It will be a hexagonal building, made from straw and mud. We have a Dutch expert in cob building leading the eco building project. The building will take place during my October training, which is ramping up to be another mega training of close to 50 students.

We expanded our camping area with an extra bell tent as well as a new and beautiful Mongolian family Yurt. We are also creating a Moroccan style hang-out area for the glamping area!

I had an urge to add more animals to our family some months ago. I now have a gorgeous new fluffy white cat called Chandra and Felix, another stray cat who is slowly winning his way into my heart, a toy poodle called Rishi, who is an absolute delight and two miniature donkeys named Jasper and Basil. So a veritable menagerie suddenly. Oh and I forgot Lulu Bebe de las Tres Patas (our three-legged rescue goat) who is pregnant with one or two baby kids. We are in the process of creating a petting zoo!

We expanded our camping area with an extra bell tent as well as a new and beautiful Mongolian family Yurt. We are also creating a Moroccan style hang-out area for the glamping area!

I had an urge to add more animals to our family some months ago. I now have a gorgeous new fluffy white cat called Chandra and Felix, another stray cat who is slowly winning his way into my heart, a toy poodle called Rishi, who is an absolute delight and two miniature donkeys named Jasper and Basil. So a veritable menagerie suddenly. Oh and I forgot Lulu Bebe de las Tres Patas (our three-legged rescue goat) who is pregnant with one or two baby kids. We are in the process of creating a petting zoo!

Our bookings for 2016 are amazing and we are all super excited. Sarah Powers is coming here, Esther Ekhart will be back, Yoga Works is holding a training and Travis Elliott from Los Angeles is also coming. And many other great teachers! In short a stellar line-up.

We have been loving the long hot summer, the endless evenings and the panoramic sunsets.

I am looking forward to a week’s vacation in Italy with my dear friend Lisa and her family. I was just in London for a weekend training in Marshall Rosebergs Non-Violent Communication. It is something I am going to share with the staff here and that I would ultimately love to teach.

In November, I am looking forward to a trip to Guatemala to run a two week Advanced YTT with Jennifer Yarro. I am really looking forward to that too as I plan to spend a week in Antigua beforehand with Lidiya, my lovely PA, studying Spanish and preparing for the course.

I would love to install a hot-tub, a sauna or both at Suryalila as winter approaches. It sounds so fabulous to bathe under the stars in steaming hot water :)) So that is on my radar. Stay posted!

As always, every day I count my blessings. I am so grateful to be living my dream. And so grateful for all the beautiful people that come through this gorgeous oasis.