An Orange in the Snow | A Recent Retreat Memory
- Sandy Naimou
- Mar 19
- 2 min read
I was on retreat recently. Silence and sweetness filled me while reverence rang in my heart. Worries and thoughts having simmered down—memories of this world faded while deeper memories of bliss came forward. On retreat at Song of the Morning Yoga and Meditation Retreat, my memory is unrecognizable—some remembrances melding into others, yet some crisp and clear.
This time, a specific white-glazed memory still shines in my heart. A small group of us trekked through the paths mixed of mud, ice and snow. Three feet of accumulated wintery white piles on each side of us, we made our way to the "Yogananda Shrine." Joe, an able-bodied and quickly-reflexed seventy-maybe -eighty-something-year-old, ageless really, had spent an hour a day this winter shoveling a path through the woods to get to the shrine.
"This is your moment, Joe!" Justine twinkled while we prepared to step onto the main retreat road to find the path into the woods, Joe gripping his "Gandalf-staff." A group photo officiated the beginning of our trip.
A longer walk than some of us realized, it was also more "brisk" and windy than we might've prepared for. Our relaxed conversation kept our hearts warm and our joints able (enough). Various paths later, we eventually found the way to the shrine and stepped through the soft mossy shovel-sized forest path surrounded by snow, moving away from the retreat road.
Deeper into the woods we walked through changing elevations. Where Joe's shoveling stopped, the compressed snow began mid-way up the hill leading to the shrine. Pressing our boots into the snow and finally at the top, we soaked in the view of the Pigeon River flowing beneath, an image of the revered Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda in front of us. Conversation eventually dissolved and we soaked in the sun-filled air and squeaking trees on all windy sides. We sat and stood within a nature-filled silence.
Emerging from ten minutes of that silence was the voice of Naren, who lead our retreat, chanting to the Guru. Bird-song, heart-song, river-song, tree-song, earth-song came together. Another moment of silence to let that masterpiece echo in our hearts, and it was about time to head down.
"Anyone want an orange?" Tom asked, holding a foreign sphere of color in his hand. With a joke and hearty laughter, everyone filed down and I stood at the bench to let them pass. As we carefully descended, the line suddenly stopped. Each person turned to the one behind them, handing them a little gift and a giggle. The last tangerine slice made it to the last one in line. And let me tell you, that was the sweetest citrus bite I have ever tasted, standing there, mid-way up the shrine hill, behind joyful friends, standing plainly and simply in the land of meditative bliss.
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Have you heard Naren K. Schreiner's devotional music before?
You can find him on Spotify and YouTube and potentially elsewhere.
During that specific commemorative "Guru Bhakti" retreat, the focus is the Divine relationship with the Guru. This is his musical version of it (versus the chanting variation)
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