There is a Zen Buddhist saying – “chop wood. carry water” – the meaning has been debated as summarized here. The way I am applying it is that the daily tasks of life help us to become present through focusing on simplicity and can become a moving meditation. In a communal living situation, I also see it as how you serve one another, by contributing to the daily life around the place. I was looking forward to this aspect of coming here – simply doing the things to live, being present with the tasks at hand instead of my normal ruminations about the things/events/Presidents happening external to my own mind, creating good habits and contributing to a system greater than just being in service to myself.
In my 6 years of nomading I have had lovely opportunities to live communally with friends and loved ones along the way. Having not lived in the dorms for university and living by myself since the divorce, a big THANK YOU to all of you who have prepped me for this experience! The opening of your homes to me when I need a place to be for a while is all the more appreciated now that I am in this unusual time living among strangers.
This week was planned without guests, so instead we had a list of chores that needed to get done around the chateau. Our biggest behemoth is, and continues to be, weeding… the gift that keeps on giving. We spent the first hour of every day weeding, when it was the coolest. The cover photo for this post is the proof of our hard work – our huge compost pile of weeds. The rain did finally come this week and guess what happens when it rains? Weeds once again appear where you just plucked them out of the earth!
Speaking of the thunderstorms, we had accompanying wind gusts that were quite severe and brought a whirlwind of leaves into the chateau. There were also some casualties – a huge limb came down on one of the glamping tents (thankfully no one was inside) and the sun umbrellas went for a swim in the pool. Now we know better to batten down the hatches when a storm is anticipated!
There was a lovely bonding effect amongst the volunteers that happened without any guests present. We each took a night to cook for the group and shared meals together, which doesn’t always happen. The volunteers are from South Africa (Hannah and Tyla) and China (Kai) and they all found this volunteer opportunity through World Packers. We each chose a movie to watch after dinner and had a mimosa brunch one morning (obviously my idea).
Sunday we took the afternoon off and went with the owner of the chateau (Erin) and the chef who is from a neighboring town (Alicia) to the river to float and swim and cool off. We thought we had reserved six stand up paddle boards but when we arrived everyone, including the guys working there, were surprised to find we had reserved the 8 person board. Game as ever, the group piled on and we floated out to a spot where we could swim. We had a cocktail by the shore where they had set up tables and chairs in the water. It was a beautiful sunny day in the low 90s with a breeze so it wasn’t scorching to be on the water.
We added a new volunteer to our crew Sunday night – Maya is the social media coordinator and is originally from the States but right now she lives in Nice, France for school. The volunteers all went to the train station to pick her up, then we went for dinner at an “American Steakhouse” called Buffalo Grill. It was hilarious, and slightly problematic with all the carved Indian headdresses and totem poles.
This week we will add one more staff member – Grace is the operations manager from California. And sadly, the South African contingent will be moving on to their next destination of Paris. It is interesting to not only have a rotating cast of guest characters each retreat, but also a rotating cast of team members to work alongside. Mostly I would say it is going well so far, only a few lost in translation situations that we can definitely laugh about. Our favorite so far is that when we cooked for each other it was the first time Kai had nachos and that any of us had Korean cold noodles. Our joke became that this was the best version of the dish we had ever had (never having had it before). A nod to Project Hail Mary which was my movie choice – if you haven’t seen it yet, it is a must see!
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