2000

Gray Bear Lodge

Gray Bear Lodge

Yoga Practice inside the lodge

March 17th  through the 19th  I went to my first away yoga retreat weekend at the Gray Bear Lodge in Tennessee. The instructor for the retreat was Doug Keller, a fairly well known and respected yoga teacher. Oddly enough, Doug taught classes at the yoga center where I was going, and although I knew of Doug, I had not taken any classes with him at the time so the retreat would be the first time I studied with Doug. Located southwest of Nashville, the Gray Bear Lodge, I got a flight from the Dulles airport to Nashville where I rented a car for the hour drive to the lodge arriving Friday afternoon. After turning off the main road I followed a winding, somewhat precarious, dirt road for a ways arriving to find the lodge to be exactly what I had envisioned a lodge to be, a rustic, large two story log cabin. On one side was a two-story bunkhouse, a kitchen on the other and in between a large two-story high common room with a large fireplace at one end. I checked in and was assigned a bed where I dropped off my things and went out and explored the grounds. Other guests arrived that afternoon and at five pm was the first hour long yoga session in the common room followed by dinner. Saturday we were woken by a chime where there was a light breakfast buffet set out. After breakfast was a three-hour yoga session, a break for lunch and time in the afternoon to explore the grounds followed by another three-hour yoga session in the afternoon then a break before dinner. After dinner was a two-hour session on yoga philosophy after which I was so tired I went right to bed. Sunday morning was another three-hour session and lunch. I left shortly after lunch for the drive back to the Nashville airport and the flight home. Doug was an amazing teacher and I learned a lot about not only doing yoga poses, but also about yoga philosophy.

Journal Entry