Support a Healing Retreat
Thanks in advance to anyone who honors us by reading this.
I'm Sean McDonald, the caretaker of a beautiful space in Costa Rica called Vida Asana. Most weeks you'll find us hosting 10-25 wondrous yogis, who have come here for healthy food, great yoga, and adventures. Mostly, we laugh, love, and heal, in a setting that is somehow both private, and immersed in the local community. I can't thank Alejandro and Rose, who created the space, enough, for their vision. It is a great honor to continue what they started.
Just over three years ago, my wife and I received the greatest blessing a person can receive, a happy and healthy child, who laughs, plays, cries, and learns day after day. While people may argue about politics, religion, or a million other things, you'd find few that would disagree, that a child is an incomparable blessing.
This of course also means that few would argue there the most devastating and life changing event that someone can endure, is the loss of a child. For those of us who have not experience it, I don't think we can even pretend to understand what that sort of trauma feels like.
I'm sad to say that too many people who I love, have endured that experience over the last few years. Most recently Rose and Alejandro's marvelous daughter Lupe, whose candle burned so brightly, that the wick came to an end, much sooner than any of us imagined, passed away.
What we are proposing to do, is to host a retreat next year, where we host as many parents as possible, who have suffered through such a loss. Vida Asana will provide the lodging, the food, the staff, the logistics, and everything else we provide on a weekly basis, as our gift to this event. There will be no cost for any of the parents. This is our gift to them, and it is our intention to repeat a similar event, every year after.
I held one week in March of 2018, for this event. During this time of year the sun is shining, it is warm, we feel Mother Earth all around us, and hopefully it will create just the right environment for healing, forgiveness, safety, and connection.
You may ask, why we need to raise money, if we intend to provide this event as a gift. That would be a valid question. The truth is, that while we are lucky enough to be able to offer the retreat for free, we aren't able to pay for things like airfare, offsite activities, and bringing emotional healers here, who could provide very specific love and support to the parents who join.
If I am being honest, I hope we can raise more than $5000, but if we get there, it will be a blessing. Here is how we intend to use the funds;
$5000 - any monies, up to $5000 that we receive, will go to provide airfare to parents who want to come to this event, that otherwise could not afford to attend. I'm imaging providing 10 parents with $500 to defray travel costs.
$7500 - If we are able to raise $7500, we will allocate $2500, to defraying the costs of bringing wonderful and empathetic emotional healers, to lead workshops and one-on-one healing sessions with the parents who attend the retreat.
$10,000 - If we are able to raise $10,000 we will allocate $2500 to having a good time. Park excursions, massages, zip-lining, surfing, live music, whatever we can afford, to make sure this event, is everything people have come to expect, of Vida Asana
In the case that we raise more than $10,000 we'll allocate the remaining funds, to a scholarship, for a young girl in Costa Rica, with aspirations of being a Professional Surfer, in honor of Lupe.
On behalf of everyone at Vida Asana, I can't tell you how grateful we are, for any and all support. Namaste y Pura Vida, Sean/Jess/juju and everyone else at Vida Asana.Vida Asana