Big Tuna. Dry Ice. Falling out of the boat.

Big Tuna. 

Dry Ice. 

“Wait, you feel out of the boat?”

You might think these were all snippets of a fishing trip, but in fact they all were inside jokes from Pedal, Paddle and Pause that just wrapped up yesterday. 

During our opening circle, one of the gals shared that she hoped by the end of the retreat that we’d have some inside jokes and it’s amazing that in a period just a hair shy of 48 hours how a group of women can come together and transform from strangers to friends. 

Sharing 3 highlights of Pedal, Paddle and Pause…

1- Choosing your attitude with a gloomy forecast counts. 

The weather forecast for this past weekend in Ohiopyle had three sequential days of rain, thunder and lightning. 

I decided to remain calm. We would pivot. We had choice points because we were car camping. 

And one gal in the opening circle, in expressing what might get in the way of being present for the weekend, was hoping to put aside that the experience was going to be less than because of the weather. All of us collectively put out well wishes to the weather g’ds, including the gal, whose father (of blessed memory) was a meteorologist.

Amazingly, it torrentially down poured during our opening circle as we sat under a beautiful open-air covered pavilion and then it cleared to a drizzle. It drizzled briefly on the bike ride. When we stopped on the high bridge over the Yough River gorge on the way out, it was foggy. About 75 minutes later we went over the same bridge and there were patches of blue sky. 

No thunder. No lightning all weekend. 

Sunny skies on Saturday

Sunday had a little drizzle, but we had a pop up tent and hot tea and coffee. 

As a group we could have collectively bemoaned the forecast and gotten sidetracked about the future. A gloomy attitude of the forecast could have brought us all down. Instead, we leaned into the moment and found ourselves pleasantly surprised and grateful.

We choose to be open to the experience, even if the weather forecast wasn’t going to be all sunshine. 

And life surprised us and it was primarily sunshine! Yahoo!

2- Bring your authenticity, that includes the things you are fearful of. 

It’s very common that on Pedal, Paddle and Pause that women join who have never gone rafting before. And it can be intimidating to go rafting, if you’ve never gone before (and it can be very intimidating even if you have gone before!). One woman in particular voiced her worries. She tackled the river the next day and fell into the river and another gal in the boat grabbed her by the lifejacket and pulled her back into the boat.

What a champ! What teamwork!

I loved how in our closing circle, many women expressed gratitude to this gal who was vocal about feeling nervous about rafting.

Sharing your worries can be a beautiful invitation.

Knowing one of their retreat-mates was nervous gave them strength because they found themselves offering tools and support to cheer her on that also supported themselves in regulating their own worries and fears.  

And it also created an environment where you didn’t have to clam up and feel quietly terrified to be part of the community. You could be authentic about the state of your heart, body and mind and together take on the challenge. 

3- Choose to lean in. 

During rafting, our guide- Kayleigh- shared a list of commands including “lean in.” She explained that if she called lean in, we’d need to lean into the raft, as we were probably going to bump into a rock. This happened a few times and we got cozy. 

At any moment one of the gals in the group could have chosen to not lean in and this would have most likely thrown the momentum and weight of the raft off and someone would have probably popped out into the river. We all chose to lean in. 

And that leaning into each other wasn’t just happening in the raft.

It was happening as we gathered around the campfire. As we shared roses/buds/thorns around the picnic table over dinner. As we invited others to join us on an adventure over our free time. 

Leaning into community means vulnerability. And it also is from that place the magic of community and friendship can be born. 

What a delight to gather in community… 

Be on the lookout for our upcoming offerings at Circle and Spoke. 

In the meantime, sending good juju from this beautiful retreat to our wider community. 

Wheels up, 

Ellen