Spiritual Living Retreat at Asilomar

The "Refuge by the Sea"

I am writing this from the beautiful California park and conference grounds of Asilomar. This amazing place on the Monterey Peninsula, in the beautiful town of Pacific Grove was first a YWCA camp. It was designed by Julia Morgan who also designed Hearst Castle. She was one of the first women to graduate from the University of California in 1894 with an engineering degree, then she was one of the first women admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where in 1902 she graduated with a Master's Degree in Architecture. She became the first woman to earn a license to practice architecture in California. Her beautiful blending of rock, wood and air in all of her buildings on the Asilomar grounds sets the tone for an amazing sense experience of natural beauty and a return to my own natural love. Asilomar was named in a contest for a five dollar gold coin by a young Stanford University graduate, Helen Salisbury in 1913. She combined the Spanish word "asilo," which means haven or refuge, with "mar," meaning sea, to form "Asilomar" a refuge by the sea. And so it is to Religious Science since the 1940's. Ernest Holmes and his beloved wife, Hazel quickly became dedicated to a yearly conference on the grounds of Asilomar.
   

United Centers for Spiritual Living created the Hazel Holmes Award for the love of Asilomar on August 15, 2001. I was blessed to be the recipient of that first award. Later Musician Anton Mizerak also received the award for his beautiful gift of service to Asilomar year after year. 
    When the organization of Centers for Spiritual Living decided to stop the conferences in 2013, I was approached by several women who had come to my Wednesday Meditations for years. They asked me to come and put on a retreat for them. Anton and Laura Berryhill joined me to create a beautiful experience in 2014, we held our first retreat and were joined by 50 people. All of the workshops were centered around spiritual and personal growth and put on by Ministers and Practitioners who were also attendees of the conference and had volunteered out of their love for the event. In 2015 and 2016 we had New Thought Churches and Centers represented and have grown. We again had Ministers, Practitioners and Laypeople who gifted us with their talents and wisdom in workshops. 

We have made reservations again this year, and will be joined again by Unity Churches, Centers and Churches from the Affiliated New Thought Network (ANTN) and Centers for Spiritual Living. We had people from as far away as New York and Victoria, B.C.  and as local as Pacific Grove.
   It was truly a loving and healing environment as we created a conscious intentional spiritual community. Healing and transformation happened, friendships were made, renewed and deepened. And something beyond words happened. About 10 people were there for the first time and others of us have come every year for 35 or more years.

I look forward to seeing you at Asilomar this year!