lime retreats: the limelight sessions, october 2014
Almost 2 years ago, I had the idea of putting on a workshop -- initially, I had thought it would be solely for attorneys -- specifically around the concepts contained in my book, The Beauty of Different. The one thing that I wanted, however, was for this workshop to feel more like a retreat -- a bunch of friends sharing, inspiring each other, and just hanging out.
In other words, as we say in Trinidad, a true lime.
Even though I'd been toying with this idea for months, I was paralyzed with fear. I'm not sure what I was afraid of, exactly: that I wouldn't be able to pull it off, I guess, or that it would be too big a job for just one person to handle. I hemmed, I hawed, and finally, I spoke with a trusted friend, who gave me great advice.
Start small, she said. Baby steps. You can make it big later.
So I took her advice, and planned for a tiny, intimate retreat, not tailored to attorneys -- and limited attendance to no more than 25 people. And finally, at long last, last month the Limelight Sessions happened.
My friend Laurie Smithwick flew in to help, even at great risk to personal bodily harm. That's friendship right there, folks.
We started on Thursday night with a little cocktail party get-together, courtesy of the amazing folks at Eppa Sangria. Let me just stop a minute and express my undying gratitude to Eppa -- they discovered my retreat and contacted me, offering to provide the official libations for our initial meet-and-greet, before the retreat began in earnest. How amazing is that? Even more amazing is that their sangria is really, really good (I'd never had white sangria before, and that stuff is the elixir of the gods, I'm telling you). And get this: their ingredients are organic, which in my book, makes it health food, amiright?
My friend Laura Mayes also traveled into town to assist. I have good, good friends. Good friends who know how to make bottles of sangria look particularly awesome.
(Seriously, Eppa, you guys are wonderful. Thank you so much.)
The next morning, everyone returned to our haven for the next two days, and our liming officially began.
We journaled. We shared. We laughed. We dreamed. We planned. We encouraged. We cheered. It was everything I would hope it would be.
But you know what? I have a confession: it rapidly became abundantly clear that very little of my retreat's success had to do with me.
The truth, my friends, is that I was lucky enough to have some extraordinary women join me for my first retreat. It was an incredibly diverse group -- various ages, stages of life, from all over the United States, from various backgrounds -- and they arrived with enthusiasm and openness. And they were all so kind -- to me, yes, but even more wonderfully, to each other. It was a joy to witness.
What's also been really fun is hearing how all these strong, phenomenal women have taken what they experienced during Lime back to their regular lives, and what little epiphanies they continue to have. New ideas have formed. New projects have been launched. And not to divulge too much of anybody's business, but one woman may or may not have made the decision to marry to her long-term partner.
Photo by Laurie Smithwick
So thank you, all you lovely, limin' women, for making a little dream of mine come true. At the end of our time together, many asked, "When's the next Lime going to happen?" And while I don't have a date yet, it absolutely will happen again. Oh yes. Oh yes, it will.
Stay tuned.
Song: New day by Alicia Keys. Today's song chosen for you by the lovely women of the LimeLight Sessions, 2014.