Instants, the Relais & Châteaux Magazine

Comment réagissent les grands chefs face aux événements? En cette période de confinement ils pensent, bouillonnent, réfléchissent à l'après. Le chroniqueur gastronomique François Simon recueille leurs mots et leurs sentiments.

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Épisode 12: Didier Clément, Grand Hôtel du Lion d'Or, Romorantin, Lloir-et-Cher

Comment réagissent les grands chefs face aux événements? En cette période de confinement ils pensent, bouillonnent, réfléchissent à l'après. Le chroniqueur gastronomique François Simon recueille leurs mots et leurs sentiments.

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Épisode 11: Stéphane Buron, Le Chabichou, Courchevel

Comment réagissent les grands chefs face aux événements? En cette période de confinement ils pensent, bouillonnent, réfléchissent à l'après. Le chroniqueur gastronomique François Simon recueille leurs mots et leurs sentiments.

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Épisode 10: Sébastien Bras, Laguiole, France

Comment réagissent les grands chefs face aux événements? En cette période de confinement ils pensent, bouillonnent, réfléchissent à l'après. Le chroniqueur gastronomique François Simon recueille leurs mots et leurs sentiments.

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Épisode 9: Emmanuel Renaut, Flocons de Sel, Megève, Haute-Savoie

Comment réagissent les grands chefs face aux événements? En cette période de confinement ils pensent, bouillonnent, réfléchissent à l'après. Le chroniqueur gastronomique François Simon recueille leurs mots et leurs sentiments.

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Épisode 8: Anne-Sophie Pic, Maison Pic, Valence, Drôme

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 42: Day 40 "Searching for the Spirit of the Great Heart"

And then all of sudden we were there. The face of the people I love. Saying goodbye with immense gratitude to the tree and this beautiful place on the river. The last dawn from inside this experience on the river. I know this is not the end but the beginning. You will be hearing from me. There is so much life for us all to live. I’m not going to try and summarize of sign off well. I have said what I need to say. I will leave you with an anthem by the late great South Africa Johnny Clegg. Volume up, listen to the words:

The world is full of strange behavior

Every man has to be his own savior

I know I can make it on my own if I try

But I'm searching for a great heart to stand me by

Underneath the African sky

A great heart to stand me by

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

To hold and keep me by

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

Under African sky

Sometimes I feel that you really know me

Sometimes there's so much you can show me

There's a highway of stars across the heavens

There's whispering song of the wind in the grass

There's the rolling thunder across the savanna

A hope and dream at the edge of the sky

And your life is a story like the wind

Your life is a story like the wind

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

To hold and stand me by

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

Under African sky

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

I see the fire in your eyes

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

That beats my name inside

Sometimes I feel that you really know me

Sometimes there's so much you can show me

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

(Guka 'mzimba, sala 'nhliziyo)

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

(Guka 'mzimba, sala 'nhliziyo)

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

To hold and stand me by

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

Under African sky

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

(Guka 'mzimba, sala 'nhliziyo)

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

(Guka 'mzimba, sala 'nhliziyo)

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart

(Guka 'mzimba, sala 'nhliziyo)

I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart.

Songwriters: Jonathan Paul Clegg

Great Heart lyrics © Rhythm Safari Pty Ltd

https://www.johnnyclegg.com

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 41: Day 39 "Reflection"

A ceremony is a place to remember to remember. As I walk through my last 39 days I have a lot to reflect on. I remember the resistance that arose before leaving home. I remember the anxiety of the first few days when six weeks seemed like an eternity. I must remember to sit with anxiety with compassion. I remember the feeling of a shell being taken off after one week. How do I work with this after I return back? Optimization for me comes out of consistency. I must remember to sometimes just start.

All through the day I intend to reflect on all these moments. In my experience re-entry is its own journey and art form. You have to remember that in change processes we spiral forward. We sometimes go back but on a different rung on the spiral.

The key is to notice yourself, watch yourself and pay attention without judgement. That will create the awareness to shift from.

Our inner world shapes our outer world. Imagination, creativity, enchantment, tracking, storytelling and pattern interruption. Nature is the deepest teacher.

The gratitude I feel for the land here is impossible to put into words. Beauty to the point where I feel overwhelmed. Elephants, rhinos, leopards, starry skies, storms. I will miss the elephants mid-morning arrival at the river. And of course the tree is a love story all of its own. I have been a part of its ecosystem all on my own. This tree has taught me so much. It has been the host of one of the most transformational experiences of my life. In native cultures everything is alive, it is a being and I understand that now. This tree has been a true friend and will continue to be.

In gratitude I also turn to all of you who came along for the ride and sent me notes of support. To be able to do this alone and with you was perfect. We are all connected. We know why we are here. To learn to heal to bring back the new old ways. To have fun and reach out and not let it all be too serious and to remember what living actually is.

What if what we made here is the real world. The most natural scape is the real world. Its just a deep sense of the sacred which makes me reflective. Jesus is often depicted with his eyes open. Buddha is often shown with his eyes closed. In truth we need contemplation in action. No enlightenment has any power unless it is lived.

I am also full of a very simple desire to do the best work I can do towards the transformation of consciousness. Today I am going to run as far as I can. Slowly relishing the feeling of the land under me. I am going to swim in the river and sit by the fire. There is a time to reflect on our reflections and PS its probably good I’m close to the end as I have a tooth that is killing me.

I guess the lasting question is that in a matter of time, all of our lives will go back to normal. What do we want that normal to be? The treehouse is like a nest, my books tarpaulin, clothes and yoga mat is all around me. It’s quiet in the way of nature where the sounds make the silence rather than break it.

Covid has been so hard for so many people but it also gave me a glimpse back in time. This reserve has been an empty Eden and I am Adam. What will it mean in 30 years to have lived with wild animals? Will it all be gone or will be wake up? Would you find it very hard to understand if I said that I’m learning to be at peace with both? Wherever we land, it will be there.

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 40: Day 38 "Push"

If you think 6 weeks is long you should try two days. The moon rises here have been truly epic. Last night as it rose a small pearl spotted owl was perched on a Marula tree silhouetted for a moment. An astounding truth that the moon controls the tides and fertility in its cycle. The night was so bright I didn’t even need a torch.

You know you are so hungry when everything looks like food. A huge pancake, a wheel of French cheese and a ripe peach. It’s not that I’m tired but rather how you would feel at the end of a long experience. It’s a head space. I really want to shower, I really want to talk to my friends. Drink pints at the taps and get cut mercilessly before they turn on each other.

It’s the things that play on your mind like warm anticipation. You can’t do that early on as it would just derail your whole sense of presence. It makes me think of Renias and how any tracker worth his salt is just wired this way.

On a prior retreat the tracks had been tricky but were fresh. Part of the art of guiding is being able to read where people are and know where to push and when to let them go. Renias, however couldn’t leave the tracks. It offended something in his nature to let the lion tracks go.

A few days ago I left the trail of the lion when the sun climbed high in the sky and the light grew flat and white. I needed to go back on the track and be certain the trail was lost over the border which it was. Courage is knowing when the hold on and knowing when to let go. I need to be here all the way until the end.

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 39: Day 37 "The Two Paths"

Wow we made it to day 37. In so many mythological stories there is an idea that when you were born a twin was born with you. It was thrown out the cot and becomes your wild twin. It’s a scallywag, an outlaw, a rogue. IT slips chocolates to your nieces and nephews before supper. It’s willing to act outside the bounds of the rational. It doesn’t give a hoot about what anyone else thinks and can be relied upon to do something totally essential. It knows how to grieve, it does not control the longings of the heart.

Jung had this idea of there being two paths. The right path and the left path. The right path is the one of society. A structured path forward that is laid outside and with its pursuit comes a position in the world with pursuit and structure. The right path is beautiful. The left path is different. It is the path of creation. You look into the world and you don’t see anything that is for you. It’s like living towards a feeling of aliveness. It requires a lot of reaching for the wild twin. Joseph Campbell says of the left path, it’s a challenge because you will not be respected by society by you will be in our own authenticity.

Right pathers do very well until the age of 46. Then they start to wonder if its what they really wanted. They come to a place where they feel they are missing something of themselves.

Left pathers struggle to ground themselves in the world, the options are paralyzing, the money is tight. Some can’t get through the drift of constantly drifting. But those who learn their process emerge around 46, after a harrowing run, fully alive and autonomous.

I’ve always wondered if there is a path between? Where both pathers got in touch with the other somewhere in between. The only way a central path becomes available is through mentorship.

Rates of download can be incredibly high between people who have integrated aspects of the other path.

Mentorship is truly magical when it spontaneously occurs. Often in true mentorship there is no explicit instruction. Real mentorship is a shared presence. I was lucky to be mentored by Alex and Renias until I would go out tracking a lion thinking about what Alex and Renias would be doing in that particular situation. To be either a Mentor or a Mentee takes inner work. We can cultivate the ground in ourselves to create more sharing in our work and community. To be a mentor you need excellence, confidence and a map of having done it. You need to have a passion for what you do that is beyond you. A love for the art form itself. This requires a personal sense of abundance as you will give away some of what you have. This can be a challenge but when I have been shared with like that I knew something sacred was happening. The source never needs to really claim its the source.

The Mentee needs humility, to be real with themselves as to where they are at and respect of what has been given. The role of a true Mentee is to learn it and evolve it. That is the responsibility bigger of you.

So what does it mean to be wild. It certainly doesn’t mean doing whatever you want and asking to nobody. Dimensions of self come from attention. You have unconsciously found and expressed your talents and gifts. You have met your wild twin and are friends. It means your nature is not clouded by layers of other peoples rules. You have to pay attention and listen to what is being asked of you by life. The more you do your inner work the easier it gets.

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 38: Day 36 "Never Punch a Monkey"

In the silence by the fire I suddenly heard growling. It was so constant I thought it was a generator on the breeze. It was the sounds of cats mating but without the specific sound that leopards make at the end of copulation. Lions mating.

In line with my family tradition I walked in the moonlight down the road to the camp. The moon was so bright I cast a shadow. I knew if the lions were mating I only need wait a bit and I would hear them again. I stood in silence listening to the Scops owls call all around. Then the sound again. I moved fast towards the lions as I knew they would not hear me. Then I saw them. The air was very cool and the cats stood and began to walk away from me on a hippo path towards the river. Watching them in the night and to be alone was something astonishingly private. No one would every understand how close I felt to them that night. I went back to the fire and just sat there for sometime.

As I do this I become aware of how distracted I was before. This kind of empty fire sitting is a way of being with your own being. Afterwards I went up to the tree and the branches were shadowed on the tree.

I have been reading Bourdain’s books. Little did Bourdain and I know what lay ahead of us that night. At 2am I was awakened by something landing on the deck. A flat thump then a spray starting hitting my face and I got out of bed shouting.

You never know when you will get pissed on by a monkey.

The things you worry about never happen, it’s the things you never thought about that actually happen.

Finally when dawn broke I made a cup of tea and got on the trail of following the mating lions which went on for ages. I lost the tracks but kept persisting until I found their tracks crossing the border eventually.

Technically Im entering a phase now of this ceremony which you might think of as dismount. I need to integrate the ceremony and make sense of it to share with the world.