Our Spring Retreat in Review
It’s the Monday following our Spring Perinatal Day Retreat, and y’all - I’m still on Cloud 9. The day was perfect. I mean, not actually perfect - we had a couple of snafus, and I have a long list of things I’d like to do differently next time, and I got home and literally just laid in the grass for fifteen minutes to allow my nervous system a chance to figure itself out after the day, but it was so incredibly close to perfect, and that’s enough.
I’m struggling to write this post - do I give you a blow-by-blow of each and every win, struggle, panic, and success? Do I describe how beautiful the weather was, or how little insulation the windows of our space had to protect from the heat? Do I shout out specific vendors, attendees, and providers for stepping up, showing up, and working together to make the day everything that it was? Do I try to paint a picture of what it looked like - women digging deep and shouting out their power in a yoga class, moms connecting with other moms in a similar season as themselves, rueful conversations about morning sickness and heartburn, women-owned businesses connecting with each other and potential clients? Or do I try to describe everything that I felt yesterday, that I’m still feeling today, as the uterus-less stepmom who started all of this?
To be real though, the day wasn’t perfect. While I appreciated the clear, Carolina blue skies and warm sunshine, the single-pane windows in the historic building didn’t do much to keep the sunshine at bay - more than one mom ducked gratefully into the Arches lobby, red-faced and ready to sit down in the blasting air conditioning. Our doula, Maryn, had been awake for close to 30 hours when she arrived - she’d been supporting a mom through the night, and when labor stalled, Maryn dashed to the retreat…only to dash back out again when Mom started pushing (this, friends, is an example of how incredibly dedicated doulas are to their moms - they will drop everything in order to cheer you on and walk with you through your journey). Maggie, another doula and owner of Foothills Birth Journey, saved the day, stepping in to offer insight and answer questions in Maryn’s place (and this is an example of the incredible community, friendship, and support that makes up the world of perinatal providers). We adjusted the schedule on the fly about three times - since we’ve never included vendors before, it was a learning process to figure out how much time was just right - and my yoga class wasn’t quite long enough. Like I said - I’ve got a long list of things I’ll be doing differently next time.
What I keep coming back to though, is how it feels. You know how a wedding feels? The months of dreaming, planning, and preparation, and the day of, the bride is dashing from hair to makeup to dressing to photos, and there are a thousand moving pieces, and it’s supposed to be the happiest day of your life, and it is the happiest day, but it’s also really stressful, and you wish everyone would leave the bride alone and call someone else when something goes wrong? It’s kind of like that…except that I love being in the middle of it all. I love planning, asking for feedback, learning how to better serve moms, meeting the amazing humans in our community, connecting with other providers and businesses driven by the same heart for moms, and getting to sit back in the middle of the controlled chaos and just watch it all come together. I love hearing first, second, and third-time moms walk away saying, “I learned so much!” And I love brainstorming with my team about what comes next - how can we make it better and better and even better yet.
Yesterday was so close to perfect, and I still have so much to learn. My community is one of the best. Women building up other women is powerful in a way nobody can really describe. And I cannot wait to see what we can bring to the next retreat.
I really hope to see you there.