Month-in-Review Highlights: June 2023

Early morning in Paros, Greece, at Okreblue. I’m sitting on my bed in my room, preparing for the morning yoga session. June 29, 2023.

I postmortem each month shortly after it ends. Previously, I used these posts to hold myself accountable on progress toward my annual goals. Starting in January 2023, I broadened these posts to address more generally my observations and experiences for the month. (To read previous months’ reviews, click here.)

As mentioned last month, I had a full-on yoga retreat—eight days!—in Greece, on the island of Paros, in late June. I had attending my first yoga retreat on my goals list for 2023, so I can check off this as accomplished—and successfully.

I had worked with both the yoga teachers online, so I had some idea of what to expect of their style of teaching, but I had no idea what to expect of that much focus on yoga or of the other attendees, with whom I knew I’d spend the week fairly cloistered on a remote part of the island at a yoga retreat center called Okreblue.

I can honestly say that even if I’d had the same level of high expectations of the other attendees as I did of the teachers, the people with me for the retreat would have exceeded them by several measures. The retreat hosted twenty-six people of all backgrounds and ages and types, and all of them with whom I had the chance to interact were kind and interesting and receptive and open-hearted. (Yes, you would think that I’d have interacted with everyone over eight days, especially with such a small group, but some people truly did come to focus inward and take their space, and I can respect that.)

To be honest, after feeling not a little isolated and unconnected for a while now, meeting and spending time with the amazing people in the retreat group restored some level of faith I’d lost that humans can still connect at a level that requires deep listening, open-heartedness, and fully being present for other people.

On other goal fronts, I had set a milestone stopping point for my current novel manuscript before I left for the retreat so that I wouldn’t have it stewing around in my brain while I tried to relax. Though I had moments leading up to my departure of feeling certain that I’d overstretched with my milestone goal, I made it happen.

Having reached a good pause point on my current manuscript before I left gave me mental space to fully melt into the retreat and to relax my brain enough to spend time thinking through the theme and possible angles of my next novel manuscript. Sure, I won’t start work to map, plan, and beat out this next one until next year, but I did have a goal set to have the theme and angle chosen before the end of 2023. I won’t call it set and decided quite yet, but the thinking at the end of June at least got me from a bunch of random notes in a file to thoughts more coalesced and compelling.

Oh, and let’s see: June made for a wonderful month on so many other levels, too. I met up with a friend I hadn’t seen for an unacceptable number of years for lunch in Spiez, Switzerland, on his way to meet with friends for a hiking trip. Also, I took my first hike midmonth with the Club Alpin Suisse, which challenged my French (nonstop French with strangers for an entire day!), gave me some insights as to what to expect for future hikes with the group, and introduced me to several fun and welcoming people in my area.

Halfway through the year, I can see that certain objectives for 2023 won’t happen or make no sense, now that I’m midpath and can assess with a better feel for the lay of the actual 2023 land—not simply the hypothetical, future-peering possibilities. Worried? Nope. On all the goals and objectives that I now believe matter most, I have made solid progress.

And on into the second half of the year. I hope the midway of 2023 finds you as centered and as peaceful as possible.