Harbin

Stiners and I headed up for a mid week retreat to Harbin Hot Springs for a bit of r'n'r. I had totally forgotten that it was a clothing optional community until we arrived. I gleefully tore my clothes off upon setting down our bags in our room, but Stina gently reminded me that it was only clothing optional at the actual meditation pools. Right.

After settling in, we headed uphill for an evening soak. It is simply gorgeous up there. I was a little surprised to see so many people (maybe 30) in the meditation pools on a Wednesday evening. After soaking for a couple minutes, a lady enters the pool to say that they are about to begin the harvest full moon ceremony. She saunters around with some lit sage, and then instructs us all to make a circle and join hands. Then starts the giant "ohm" circle, which I was pretty psyched on, what with the yoga I've been doing. Then the leader wants people to start sharing positive thoughts that they will send out to the universe. That's the precise moment where it got a little too new age for Jimmy, so I quietly retreated to the side of the pool to continue my soak. People would say things like "kindness", and then everyone else would ohm in appreciation. After ten long minutes of this, they moved on to honoring the five directions (north, east, south, west, and up). They started by looking south, which means that they were all staring directly at Stina and I, who were looking right back at them.

For like 5 minutes.

Awkward.

Anyhow, after a day at Harbin we felt fully in tune with universe. Well, maybe less so then some of the other folks.