Perfecting the Sustainable Swim

You don’t live in my neck of the woods without giving at least the occasional thought to building the perfect pool. When I saw this disappearing hydrofloor swimming pool in Inhabit, I knew that I was A. Unlikely to build it and B. Equally as unlikely to stop myself from wanting to. Here’s the skinny from Inhabitat:

The design is basically a custom ceramic floor that is set on a metal grid. As the grid lowers water seeps in from slots on the sides. The pool can be set at various levels for wading, laps or even diving. Setting it at a shallow level is great for kids. When a party erupts, the pool disappears to make room for a dance floor.

So imagine: now you see it; now you don’t. And when you don’t, the water is protected and insulated out of sight, but ready to be used again at the touch of a button.

Hydrofloors, the British company responsible for the disappearing swimming pool, appear to specialize in pools so high tech, James Bond would feel right at home. And like so many bits of really cutting edge technology, when you look at this product line, you can’t help but think you’re looking at the future… and that -- just maybe -- the future is now.

Nourishment in All Its Forms

These days, we spend a lot of time musing on the idea of nourishment. To me, part of living consciously is personally addressing as many aspects of our lives as we can and thinking about the things we need -- and the things we need to do -- in order to live richly and in best service to ourselves and others.

And so what is nourishment? It is the food we eat, sure. But, along with our bodies, we can nourish our hearts with relationships and friendships. We can nourish our spirit with meditation or relaxation or art: depending on our own preferences and how we’re geared. We can nourish our minds with thoughtful reflection or introspection or literature.

I know that, with this post, I’m once again skating very close to philosophical ideas and what will be one person’s answer will likely not be another’s. Still, the questions are largely the same: how do we nourish and nurture the very best parts of ourselves? How do we preserve the things that the pressures of our careers and lives can demand?

These are complicated questions. Not easily answered. And at the same time, they are among the most basic things we can ask ourselves:

What do I need to be the very best me I can be?

How do I step back from my life in order to look at it more clearly, in either a conscious or passive way?

In a lifetime of searching, I’ve found that, for me, some of the best answers to those questions can be discovered in retreat. This is why, over the past couple of years, I’ve been helping to shape what are now our farm-stay style retreat programs here at Dancing Deer Farm.

We’ve crafted retreats in several disciplines and areas of interest, but they all share a common foundation: to give those attending the physical and emotional space they need to nourish themselves in a way that is meaningful to them.

If you’d like to look over the programs we currently have available, you’ll find that information on our website here.