I lived and loved yoga dur­ing this week­end’s retreat at the Sleep­ing Lady moun­tain resort. The resort nes­tles east of the Cas­cades — 3 hours from Seat­tle, up and over a moun­tain pass, past the Tumwa­ter River, and down to Ici­cle Creek.

It’s an adven­ture to arrive in time for Fri­day after­noon’s prac­tice, brav­ing nar­row, twisty moun­tain roads at 60 mph. The adren­a­line rush while dri­ving is tem­pered by the blaze of fall foliage, water­falls cas­cad­ing down the moun­tain slopes, rush­ing rivers with white water rapids…

The long quest-like drive helps bridge the tran­si­tion from work­life to a yoga retreat.

Nature’s Beauty

When you finally arrive at Sleep­ing Lady, you find beauty wher­ever you look, no mat­ter the weather.

From our stand­ing yoga poses, we could gaze at jagged or cloud-capped moun­tain peaks (or rock-strewn lower slopes, as shown here). I com­muned with a blaz­ing aspen grove for sev­eral moments while bal­anced in tree pose.

We held longer-than-usual war­rior poses while con­tem­plat­ing sun­breaks, rac­ing clouds, or deer graz­ing in the nearby meadow.

We med­i­tated to the sound of raven calls or rain drops on the tin roof.

Hearts on Fire

Rainey, a grace-filled yoga teacher and retreat leader, guided our prac­tice, cen­tered on the theme of “tend­ing your heart’s flame.” On a chill week­end her theme was sin­gu­larly apt.

Rainey is par­tic­u­larly gifted at invok­ing just the right amount of heart­ful or spir­i­tual qual­i­ties in the yoga retreats that she leads. Dur­ing the open­ing and clos­ing cir­cle we shared our inten­tions, chal­lenges, and the bless­ings we hoped to bring back to our every­day life and encoun­ters with our com­mu­nity of friends, fam­ily, neigh­bors and col­leagues. Yes, there were tears, but way more smiles…

From late Fri­day through Sun­day morn­ing, we immersed our­selves in 4 juicy prac­tices (2+ hours each). After­wards we’d run, still in our sweaty yoga gear, to the com­mu­nal din­ing room, where we’d feast on organic pro­duce grown on or near the Sleep­ing Lady resort.

Trees Ablaze with Color

Yoga retreats offer many delights, no mat­ter when or where they take place. But espe­cially in the fall… In early Novem­ber the foliage flames with fiery col­ors: reds and golds every­where.

Tem­per­a­tures are chilly but per­fect for aer­o­bic exer­cise —“fleece weather,” we call it…

My hus­band joined me for this retreat — not to prac­tice, but to enjoy hik­ing, com­mu­nal din­ing, and con­ver­sa­tions with this com­mu­nity of yoga prac­ti­tion­ers. He read sail­ing books, or hiked and com­muned with nature while we sweated away on our mats…

I thank him for the pho­tos that cap­ture these visual mem­o­ries. And the courage to come along on a yoga retreat where women out­num­ber men 3:1…