Day 5 written by Francesca Quaradeghini

Silence

Today has been quiet, in more ways than one, so forgive the verbal diatribe.. but it's nice to be communicating again! This morning we all had a knock on our door and a pot of lemon and ginger tea served wordlessly in our rooms as we prepared for a day of 'mauna' (silence). People delicately padded down to the yoga space where we all focused on the practice, lead by each other's breathing and the occasional gentle tap of my palms against each other, if we were in precarious places with limited vision, to ensure that we all moved seamlessly to the next posture. It was a very strong (albeit seated) practice and I think everyone seemed grateful for savasana! So we mutually agreed on an hour's meditation at noon and a long yoga nidra in the afternoon to wash away any residual tiredness!

The guys at the lodge all participated which was an amazing touch and all the ingredients to our amazingly created Ayurevdic food by chef John, were written in little tags on the breakfast table. My porridge never tasted so good and we all ate about a quarter of the amount we might usually simply because we were listening to our bellies rather than each other! Everyone filtered off in various directions, to sit under the mountain, get wrapped in seaweed or get neck high in forest flowers and then gently meandered back to the house later.

The designated time for breaking the silence was nearing when 4 Swiss gardeners turned up at the chalet and came bounding up the stairs with a hearty, 'BONJOUR'. We nodded and smiled.  At the risk of looking a little bit culty one of us chirped back in French that we were 'on a silent retirement' as opposed to retreat which we seem to have got away with. To which the man, at the sight of two young women smiling strangely and saying nothng, he said 'MAYBE THAT'S BEST' and then qualified 'FOR ME THAT IS'. It seems that the words women and silence were synonomous with improbability. Then, having seen the chef wave silently at the men, we thought maybe it had gone far enough. We turned on some opera music and gathered around the sofa to chat -at which point we all sounded deafening but nattered on until we no longer noticed!!

A great experience for everyone, the guys working at the lodge said they were twice as efficient and mindful and despite a couple of 'oh ... sorry' here and there and 'oh please do... ooops' we all kept our mouths comfortably zipped!

Good night sleep well