Gypsy Soul: Meeting Michael Roads

We arrived in Tilff by train.

We stumbled over to an area with people to get directions...and on the way we overheard a similar conversation already happening. A French woman, maybe around 60 years old was asking a burly Belgian man in stripes where she could find the monastery. Overcome by my excitement, (and to their surprise) (must've been my accent) (or maybe I was just accidentally rude) I jumped into the conversation and after we were clear (the monastery is somewhere up a hill and no there are no taxis) I invited the woman to have a beer for us while we figured things out.

Luckily the waiter was able to give us somewhat better directions, and so the three of us took off on our 45 minute march up the hill...

After a few wrong turns and a failed hitchhiking attempt, we arrived at this grand entrance:

I felt like I was floating in a dream!!! Like my entire life was leading up to this moment. Like a huge shift was beginning to take place. My heart started thumping in my chest.

The place was simply breathtaking.

A few minutes after we got there, a car pulled up behind us and I immediately recognized my heros (mostly by the bright blue shirt Michael always seems to be photographed in!) Like an idiot schoolgirl, I felt a painful sting in my throat, and watery stuff filling my eyes. I know it's stupid. I know I should be embarrassed. But it was THAT intense. As they got out, everyone seemed to line up for hugs and hellos. When they got to us I was speechless. After a painfully long hesitation, the words fell out awkwardly; "I talked to you once on skype!" His blue eyes stared into me as if trying to remember and luckily Carolyn rushed in to fill in the blanks. "Ah yes, I'm sure you remember, the one from Reunion Island, isn't that right?" I nodded. "Ah, yes...actually I do remember you..." he said quite cryptically, and then they went along down the line. I turned to Richard: OMG THAT JUST HAPPENED!

To my great delight, I had many more opportunities to speak to Michael and Carolyn after that. Although I'm not sure that I ever got less awkward...

And so it began. Five days of intense discussion, meditation, stories, some singing, and LOTS of bonding. I won't go into details, only to say that it was the most important thing I've done in my life thus far. And that you should definitely see for yourselves :)