I am sitting at my kitchen table with tears dangling on the edge of my eyelids. To the point where they are clouding my vision they have risen so much, but haven't quite brimmed over.

I got home around 9 from a senior high school portrait session. It was beyond dreamy. Imagine 700 acres of land, a dairy farm, dusty roads, old barns, fields of clover the deepest emerald green, baby blue sky with wisps of clouds. Bunny rabbits, beautiful cows, a dog and a warm, down to earth, beautiful teenager.

I stayed there for 3.5 hrs instead of the normal 2. It was so fun.

But this isn't why I am teary. I drove home planning to pull an all niter to get caught up on a family session I had before Squam, and get through the first few stages of editing on today's photo session, so I could get back to editing Squam photos.

Instead I sat down and opened Bloglines. And I have read some posts from lovely souls I met at Squam. The emotion that comes through the photos I took, is beautiful, but I have only had little nuggets of time to work on them and am no where near finished. Reading post after post tonight just has me all melty inside.

Since I got back I have thought at least 15 times a day about writing a post, but I keep avoiding it. It feels like no words can do justice to the experience I had.

Every single person that I came across I felt a connection, I saw a sparkle in their eyes, felt the hugeness of their heart, and could feel their courage. I couldn't help but reach out and hug , hold hands and rub shoulders or knees. The energy swirling around was palpable and delightful. Each afternoon while Denise and I were walking through the beautiful woods, I found myself having a moment of complete and udder exhaustion from all the emotion. Luckily it would dissipate as quickly as it came.

Elizabeth blew me away with what she created. She is so sincere, beautiful, warm, delightful, rooted and wise. In my eyes she really is the Goddess of Squam.

I will continue to write about the experience and post photographs through the week.

I just had to post a bit as the emotions were swirling on top.

Thank you Christine for your wise post about re entering the world after a deeply moving retreat. It really helped me feel a bit more grounded. If you feel you could use some grounding you may want to check it out.

Namaste