Every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. There is no place to hide, & so we are found Terry Tempest Williams
As a coach, I believe in doing my own inner work to best fit me to support other’s journeys. After searching for a decade, I had a good idea of what I needed for a deep & soulful dive & finally found the ‘right’ provider with whom to make a longed-for trip to the spectacular Sahara Desert.
When the word bespoke is used about programme design, the bar is set really high for the organisers in terms of expectations. Rebecca & Mohammed with the cross cultural team from Moroccan Journeys clear that bar!
A journey without flexibility is only a destination. This was an exploration & an adventure. They know the territory, literally & metaphorically. From organisation through to each moment of the experience, they paid exquisite attention, constantly looking to adjust & flex the itinerary to deepen & meet the changing or emerging needs of my individual journey.
All Journeys have a secret destination of which the traveller is unaware.Martin Buber
This characteristic wove a light cocoon of potential through each step of the week. Whether it was the cultural feast of the senses that is the Souk, the beautiful arches of the Riads lit by ruby red lamps & opening into quiet courtyards, driving through snow covered mountains, careful & expertly handled group process, being taken by your camel with its melodic, hypnotic, undulating gait across the immense & silent expanse of the desert, sleeping in a cosy nomadic tented camp under the dazzling stars, all aspects of the experience are selected & facilitated with integrity, passion, humility, wisdom, humour, courage & creativity. The desert is a great catalyst & facilitator for a deep ‘dive’ into the vast & endless mystery of ourselves, an underworld journey inviting what’s unconscious to become conscious. In the enormity of the desert, we are so small but the insignificant neglected or hidden becomes obvious & stark against the towering dunes. Quality inner work can be done there. A pilgrimage to self is often a journey from ignorance to enlightenment, from doubt to certainty, from confusion to clarity.
In the Old Testament story, take off your shoes………
was a reminder that when we pay attention we are standing on the ‘holy’ ground of our own being. The desert seems to stretch as far ahead as our life itself. Taking off my shoes was only a beginning.
Someone said: After many years of walking, the homecoming occurs in a single step. I’ve just experienced it.
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