Healing of Memories Wokshop

This past weekend I went on my first healing of memories retreat. I was accompanied by 26 others people from all over capetown and there was even two young ladies from Damascus, Syria.

 This workshop is about story telling.  We broke up into small groups and do exactly that, share our stories.  I was a bit intimidated before going because I was very self-conscious of my story, and in my head compared it to this imaginary story of someone who was worse off than me, a 25 year old guy from the states.  But through the process I just gave into it and said well I’m just going to own my story where I come from the things that I have gone through, I will share the pain that I have, the loneliness, my ambition, my hope. 

And, wowe it really is amazing the power of sharing with others has.  And that is what the workshop goal is, a sense of healing through sharing.  Others share and even though they come from a completely different world than I, it was very moving to see how relatable we all are.  Because the stories are different, but the feelings and emotions are the same.  We all experience love and pain because we all are human.  The workshop was quite successful for me. It left me extremely exhausted, but in a good way, at least I know I worked hard.

The workshop wasn’t just all heavy stuff we also sang and danced and ate and laughed together and we all bonded.  We all were genuinely sad to see each other go on Sunday.  But overall it was absolutely positively amazing!