Mists and Fog

We are back from our Professional Innkeepers Association of America national conference in the Magic Kingdom at Disneyland at Anaheim. We have met many new friends, most ex-corporates from the professional world, some engineers and pilots….guess you’d had to have made your millions to afford this business. These people have the privilege of living in some of the most outrageous homes in resort locales; and they have chosen to share the wonder.

The conference was based in the “Land of a Million Dreams”. Donn and I have held a common dream and vision for thirteen years, this month of April. The first night we realized we were falling in love, we had spent hours sharing our visions and dreams with each other…and we discovered that they coincided perfectly. I saw myself living in a Spa environment. He saw himself enjoying a think tank/soiree` type of lifestyle. We have both moved steadily toward the fulfillment of our vision the last decade and more.

The B&B model didn’t seem to feel right to us, as we sat through seminars and heard other’s stories. We began to feel more confused than ever….all our training and background wouldn’t be used in the traditional innkeeper setting. We began to feel coming was a drastic mistake….

But as the days progressed, we saw emerging through mists and fog of thirteen years of waiting, wondering… the vision of The Sanctuary as a very intimate retreat where just a few people might come and experience a way of life that imparts health security and enriches intimacy with God, nature, and each other. The Sanctuary is a magic kingdom in its own right where life is lived more slowly, savoring moments, great food, beauty, deep talks…. Here we live more mindfully, cognizant of the abundance of our blessings; our hearts swelling in gratitude… and then leaving this sacred space to return to outside Life much, much more expanded in the interior borders of our own personal universe within…this is the magic Adytum, The Sanctuary has performed on us.

We attended a fabulous seminar with an ex- Coca Cola marketing executive. She spoke of finding the “brand” of our retreat and staying true to it. We already knew, so it was no real revelation, that The Sanctuary is devoted to healing, to wholeness on all levels, to cultivating depth and breadth, width and height within our lives; that this place is sacred space in this Northwest latitude. Reaching that inner space is most likely to occur in this retreat setting of peace. The Sanctuary “brand” embraces reaching deeper intimacy and bonding with God, our loved ones, and all of nature and humanity.

Knowing this when we went in only made our discomfort increase as the seminars went on. We found no one in the hundreds that were in attendance that were creating and living the vision Donn and I had built over the past thirteen years. We started to feel we had gone off on the wrong track. The distress reached higher proportions when we were questioned why we would bother at all with only two rooms to start with; they said that technically that is a home-stay and not a B&B at all- no licensing is required at that level. Home stay is really just “having some company over”. No one could really understand why we would bother at all…listening to other voices only confused us more.

What- as Oprah would say- we “know for sure” this morning as we wake in The Sanctuary after our conference is this: like any good novel that slips from the writer’s creative force and begins to take off and write itself – The Sanctuary is clearly revealing she wishes to be available to nurture... To restore us and others. To give us our peace back. To ground us in the reality of our innate abundance because of our connectedness to God and nature and one another. This place called Adytum, the Sanctuary with its beautiful home and the land itself and all it contains wants to work. We feel her striving to have purpose beyond being beautiful. She has a destiny, like we do. She is open and yielding. She trusts. She is willing to share. She has no fear and only wishes well for those that need what she has to offer.

The model which emerged at the end of our time in Anaheim in their “year of a million dreams” was not presented nor taught at the seminar. It isn’t a viable business model on the small scale we are considering it. The Sanctuary is a humanitarian model and vision and it uses all of our skills in the healing arts. It is Donn, my and Adytum’s gift to the world. It is really God flowing through us three, and not our gifts at all….

We had the privilege and pleasure of dining, before the conference began, with Bill Sardi, researcher, author and creator of the foremost anti-aging supplement, Longevinex red wine extract, at a wonderful Mediterranean restaurant in La Verne. He spoke throughout the meal of the incredible power of this red wine extract. New studies will show that it is more powerful than calorie restriction, which to date is the most effective life extension and healing modality. This supplement is impacting disease, extending life and giving hope as neurological diseases like Alzheimers, Parkinsons and fatal diseases like heart disease and cancer continue to rise. It is part of our anti-aging emphasis at The Sanctuary.

Donn and I realize how much we have to share, with those that are the health conscious elite. Believe me, we have shared with any who ask, but we have found few that truly care enough to make even one small change in their lifestyle. The ones we are attracting are the people who will be interested to come to The Sanctuary. They are interested in taking their spiritual, mental and physical wellness to the next level. They will benefit from our experience and knowledge and have the impetus to create change in their lives.

They will experience life extending, disease reducing diets like the Mediterranean model presented in The Hale Project. They will understand the need to detoxify and use the far infrared and Turkish steam saunas on site. They will support their goals with specific medical foods designed to open the liver, to regulate blood sugar, to conjugate estrogen, to correct blood fats….they will sculpt an individual protocol of therapies to extend life and heal and prevent disease. They will release stress and learn to keep it down as it is such an insidious killer. These types of intense, healing interactions with people seeking change are best met in an intimate, nurturing setting as we enjoy at The Sanctuary.

These types of people are typically thinkers, movers and shakers….just the sort of connections we enjoy as we engage one another in stimulating, encouraging and enlightening conversations, such as we enjoyed with Bill Sardi. We thrive in this intellectual, creative environment. We thrive in the Spa setting as well. Everything in this sacred space is designed to enrich our health, our beauty, our appreciation for the gift of life and the Giver, for each other and for the natural world.

Adytum opens her arms to welcome us home. Our shared vision of thirteen years ago is emerging clearly now from the mists and fog of time, clearly defined as a destiny and purpose for us all- the house, the land and Donn and me. We all are realizing our calling and will live the life of investing in ourselves, and in each other. We have only received family and friends so far here at Adytum, The Sanctuary. But one day we will begin to open this sacred space to hearts that need to receive all that we have to share. We are creating a new thing- not a Spa, not a B&B, not a home stay…..It is what it is. We know for sure that the impact of living our lives investing and encouraging others will be an eternal one.