Retreat Reflections: Commitment to the Vision

Retreat Reflection #1:

You have to be committed to the vision.

No exception. In order to be committed, you have to release all of the “not-it shit.” If I didn’t learn anything else at The Crossing Spiritual Business Retreat, I got that.

I’m a writer. You’re a writer. It’s why you’re reading this blog. So, you can understand me when I say that writing can sometimes be frustrating. It can be confusing.

Correction. Our lack of focus can sometime be frustrating and confusing. Writing, itself, has nothing to do with that. One of The Crossing’s founders, Katrina Harrell (the business strategist) said:

You have to see the vision as complete…Clarity comes from knowing why you’re doing something.

I know why I write. That’s easy. It’s therapeutic and enlightening. Plus, I can get paid from the shit. Why not? That’s the question.

Focus on the vision. Stay there. Rid yourself of all the not-it shit.

That was the advice of the retreat’s other host, Akilah Richards. There’s my problem. Not-it shit such as:

• Operating from a place of lack (money, self-confidence, and faith).
• Comparing myself to others.
• Obsessing with others’ success.
• Not giving my ideas a fair chance.
• Doing stuff that I know is totally out of my lane in the name of a dollar.
• Accepting less than deserving rewards for my services.

As homemade authentic dishes such as pepper-pot soup, bammy, calalloo, plantains, cassava pancakes sweetened with guava jam, fresh pineapple, and coconut-papaya oatmeal crumble steamed the table, I communed with other women like me. We shared our history, dreams, failures, successes, fears, and learned lessons.

We journeyed up a hill which overlooked even bigger hills to enter a noble silence. If you’ve watched Will Smith’s After Earth, then you know what it means to ‘take a knee’ and be silent; to listen, to look and discern what to do next. That was the purpose of the noble silence.

If it sounds like a scene from a book, that’s because it was. It’s what the protagonist, Layna experienced during her retreat in How She Got Free. The perfect title to the perfect scenario. We walked away free and full–of all that The Universe decided to gift us.

I got it. I’d answered my own questions. Most times the answer is there all along. We just have to be still to hear it. A new environment doesn’t hurt. Neither does a beautiful retreat with no television, but plenty of books, art, greenery, fresh air, and hammocks.

It was straight confirmation when Akilah said:

I  am now in the realm of creation where the responsibility for manifestation of all that I know is fully assumed, and the decisions I make about what I choose to believe in are paramount.

On the same lands and in the same house that our ancestors once served their captors, we–8 black women–served one another. Mind you, nowhere else will you find one retreat that embodies both a spiritual and business component. To God be the glory. This was our way of showing gratitude:

• By taking charge
• By committing to the vision that our foremothers  held
• By accepting our responsibility to ensure that those to come will prevail
• By releasing all of our not-it shit
• By agreeing to carry not only our commitments, but our sisters as well

During the closing ceremony of the retreat, I crossed wearing the crown that my ancestors paid for so many centuries and generations ago with a newfound confidence. I came home with a clear commitment to my vision.

Are you a beautiful, brave woman in need of some soulwork + strategy? 

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