Visitor's View

The following article was sent to me by one of my first visitors at the retreat. (The headings are mine)

I simply had to write down my feelings after my stay at Derby’s amazing retreat. She has been working real hard at Ashwhin for years, and it shows. There is this feeling of permanence and comfort. Just driving in and opening the gate you feel it, like you are stepping through a portal into another world.

And then you get greeted by the kids - Jessie and Andy. I suppose if you really hated dogs they would be scary, but how can anyone mistake the grins on those two pooches for anything but a welcome. They even do what you tell them, like stay down and come in the gate. Okay so you know I am crazy talking to the animals, but these animals understand every word.

But back to my article - there is a big garden at the front of an old sprawly house, painted white like most Scottish houses, but with this feeling like it just grew there. And it practically did, the central bit was supposed to be built around 1730. The driveway leads into a courtyard, and there are Derby and Peter to meet me. One hug and she knows everything - how tired I am, that I am putting on a brave face, and that I don’t even have the strength for a cup of tea.

Instant Relaxation

I hate to admit that I fell asleep in the daytime, a nap is one of those things that you do when you are a kid and sick. But I guess I needed it, because when I woke up I felt different - and better than I had in ages. I prowled around my little home from home. Derby has thought of everything and packed stuff in so it fits perfectly. All the mod cons are there of course, and the place is cosy despite the wintery winds throwing gusts of hail at the windows.

There’s music and movies, documentaries, and BOOKs. She has the weirdest most amazing collection of books - from psychology to Feng Shui, Agatha Christie to Le Guin. I remember thinking that I’d have plenty to keep me busy if the weather was bad, then looking out onto the biggest brightest rainbow I ever saw.

Magic

The whole week was like that. Magic. It was like I stepped into a parallel universe or returned to childhood or something. When I try to capture it in words, I keep missing the essence of it.

What I did was not so very different from any holiday. I explored a really beautiful part of Scotland, and had the best seafood you can imagine - fresh from the boats. One of the things that was different was the pace of life, the fact that everyone had time to smile and to talk, to welcome a stranger and make me feel I was a friend.

The therapies that Derby does are great, a good combination of bodywork like two great and very different styles of massage, and also energy work. The reiki and metamorphic technique moved me on so subtly and surely that when I came home, I was a different and better and calmer me.

The Best things about the retreat

• Derby asked me to tell you about the best thing, well there was not simply one. So here are a collection of precious moments that I will carry with me for a long time.

• Being greeted every morning by two smiling dogs waiting patiently at the front door to greet me - and often two cats as well.

• That great holiday feeling that my time is totally my own, but better, because I could choose to be alone or to have the best company in the world - two footed and four footed.

• Watching for rainbows, I gave up counting them there were so many. Every day but for the two almost spring days when the sun never stopped shining.

• Feeling that awful knot in my left shoulder finally dissolve under Derby’s touch.

• Talking and talking, like I have not done in ages, and knowing that I would be completely accepted and supported.

• And laughing, at the antics of an overgrown kitten, at myself, at life, laughing so hard my eyes watered and my belly ached.

• Then sleeping like a kid, and waking up all ready to go.

My week at the Ashwhin Retreat put me back in touch with myself. With a better me than I had dreamt of, than I had known. And two months later, I am still in touch with this me, in fact I have been able to make a lot of changes that I had been putting off before. Now change looks like fun, and life seems easy. The relaxation techniques that Derby taught me are so much a part of my daily routine that I cannot remember what it was like without them. Well I can, but I would rather not - those few minutes every day keep me centred and cool. I am becoming my best self as Derby would say, and life never looked so great. There may be only one certainty in my world now, but it is a great one - I will be at Ashwhin Retreat every year!

Kate, London