Mindful Monday: Lessons from my Retreat—and Costco

I just returned from an eight-day retreat. It was profound in so many ways—nourishing, and full of teachings that landed deeply.

One of my biggest takeaways?

To be here now.

There is nothing to fix, nothing to chase. Freedom is being here now in this moment. 

I know I share this often, but during the retreat, I felt it in every cell of my being, and I experienced it on a much deeper level. It was life-changing.     

And then… real life.

After the retreat, I chose to go to Costco. I know - what was I thinking?

The parking lot was overflowing, and as I circled for a spot, I waited patiently for someone to pull out. Suddenly, a car behind me started honking.

In one split second, my calm dissolved. My body went from peaceful and relaxed to tense and fiery. I was pissed off—zero to ten in an instant.   

And then, as I pulled into my parking spot, I observed my reactivity and I started laughing. Out loud.

Eight days of retreat focused on how to live as a spiritual being in this unpredictable human world… and here was my lesson, delivered in the Costco parking lot.

It was perfect.

This is life.

It’s not all serene retreats and sacred circles. It’s rude drivers, long lines, frustrations, stress, laughter, joy, and moments of deep beauty—sometimes all in the same hour.

What I touched into on retreat is that presence doesn’t mean bypassing any of it. It means being here for all of it.

When we live from presence, we’re not denying our feelings or trying to control circumstances. We’re awake to them. And when we’re relaxing into our experience, it creates space for inner support and essential qualities to reveal themselves.

One of the teachers shared that early on his path, he thought enlightenment meant being blissed out all the time. His words made me smile because it reminded me of my first training as a meditation teacher. Back then, the goal was always bliss. If difficult feelings came up, we were taught to “choose for silence”—essentially to push them aside and go back to feeling good. Some people were even nicknamed “bliss bunnies,” which was considered a compliment.

Today, I’m so grateful to walk a different path.

One where the invitation isn’t to escape or deny the full spectrum of life, but to be present with it. Not to aim for endless bliss, but to allow what is here—whether it’s calm, frustration, joy, or sadness.

Because this is the practice: to keep returning to presence, again and again, no matter where we are—even in the middle of a Costco parking lot.

And perhaps the most beautiful part?

When we meet life this way, we discover that even our anger, our stress, and our challenges can become teachers. They point us back to the present moment, reminding us that peace isn’t found in perfect circumstances—it’s found in presence.


With love,

Diane