I learned that the land the retreat center sits on was owned by a family who originally had about 1500 acres and used this as their vacation home. The two sons sold off their thousand or so acres because they weren’t interested in spending time in Cody. The developer they sold the land to divided it into 20 acre lots and built custom homes, apparently creating some uproar when they were built as the residents of Cody did not like the fact that they were creating suburban sprawl! Now there is a real suburban sprawl near town because there are now houses on 3 acre plots. Lol, I’m definitely not in California anymore. Daphne, the sibling who kept her land, created a lot of amazing artwork, sculpture, painting and ceramic work, and it is all over the grounds and in the buildings. There’s an art studio in pretty much every building, a lovely little chapel, a library and all of the living spaces have large windows to take in the beautiful views.
The outdoor labyrinth is just incredible. I walked it this morning after helping with breakfast for the group who’s currently in a retreat. It was windy when I walked the labyrinth but not really cold, it was the perfect weather for a walking meditation. You can’t hear any traffic noise from there, only birds and the wind. Then I went down and nuzzled with the horses in the paddock next door. They’re quiet strong bodies are so peaceful. I’m going to spend more time with them while I’m here.
Afterwards I sat gazing out the front window at the horses grazing, the rain clouds heavy in the canyon leading to Yellowstone. I can hear the wind howling/moaning around the house, the birds singing, my housemate, Erin, whistling and humming. I’m reading a book about the Camino, written by a woman who had walked sections of it many times. It is so inspiring. I’ve been talking with my Ridge Trail buddies about planning a trip to the Camino next year, this book definitely gets me excited about the idea!
In the early afternoon we headed into town to attend the annual horse sale. I couldn’t get over how much people were paying for horses – $49, $50k and more! It was really interesting listening to the auctioneer and watching the helpers keep track of the bids, it’s like another language, a combination of hand signals and shouts. There were quite a few folks from the ‘local’ Mennonite community. Local has a different meaning here, they likely came from hundreds of miles away. I’m not sure how many horses were being auctioned, but there was plenty of horse poop all over the place. I don’t envy person who has to clean up the main street in Cody after that auction! Later in the evening we saw lots of trucks pulling horse trailers making their way back home. Before we left town I stopped briefly in the Emporium to pick up some postcards and saw a group of young kids ogling the fancy cowboy boots.
After our trip into town, Erin took me on the hike up the ridge behind the retreat center buildings. There are stations of the cross along the way as well as beautiful stone cairns to guide you along the trail. At the top of the ridge the views are incredible. It’s really windy until you get down to the other side where you’re sheltered. It’s so quiet and most of the houses are out of sight so you just see mountains and open space for miles. I completed the 3 mile loop back to the retreat center and got to have a wonderful early Mother’s Day FaceTime with Annemarie before heading up to help with dinner prep.
I found out that Erin likes to play Quiddler, one of my favorite card games, which I happened to bring with me. We played one game where she beat the pants off me, then we were both ready to hit the hay, it had been a long and wonderful day.