Alaska and the Scanner's Retreat

It occurs to me that everyone on earth is not on my mailing list and I've been asked to make the latest newsletter available online, so here it is (without any of the pretty colors or the html):


Barbara Sher - Back From Alaska & Scanners Retreat

Hi Friends,

I'm back from Alaska and I didn't see one moose, but the ship did get within 500 yards of a glacier which obligingly 'calved' a few times, the front wall cracking audibly, a rush of water falling behind the face of ice, then the whole thing sliding down into the water creating lots of splashing and sending swells of water toward the boat. More exciting, even, at least to me, were the brilliant blue streaks in the glacier and some of the small icebergs floating in the water, where the light was behind them. I fell in love with glaciers.

We watched as some of the crew in their fat, yellow zodiac chased after the smaller icebergs, hoping to gaff some ice to bring on board. It was trickier than it looked and provided us with much entertainment and shouting of instructions. Eventually, a small, easy-chair-sized chunk of iceberg was lifted on to the top deck. There were only a few of us around it at first and I took the opportunity to knock off a small chunk of transparent glacier ice and carry it away, licking it as though it were an ice cream cone. It was better. I never tasted ice water so fresh and clean. And it might have been thousands of years old.

Now, back in reality. I'm sweltering in NY city (actually, hiding in my air-conditioned bedroom with shades drawn like Count Dracula). After a few days of pulling out notes and binders, I did my latest internet radio show yesterday, all about Scanners and the Scanner retreat in Italy, coming up Sept 26 through October 1.

Producer Matthew Pearl had been to the last Scanner retreat in Puglia -- in fact, he and his family scouted out this perfect place earlier last year, and he and I talked on the show about the beautiful area, and the 16th century masseria where we ran the retreat last spring -- a remarkable, stone fortified country estate surrounded by acres of ancient olive trees.

We started remembering the food, of course. It was so good, both at the masseria and at the other restaurants we discovered in nearby towns and hidden country homes. We went on and on about the beauty of the nearby towns with their medieval centers, still alive with markets, still full of people who live there all the time, still not packed with tourists. (Head over to Flickr.com and check out Ostuni and Cisternino and Alberobello if you want to fall in love)

But mostly we talked about how great it is for any Scanner to get away from their own world and join other Scanners at a retreat.
What's a Scanner? Here's how to know if you are one:

If you find you have loads of interests, that you're curious and love learning new things, that the subjects that fascinate you are all over the map; if you hate the idea of being limited to any one thing because you'd miss all the others, you're a Scanner.

If you wish you could find the One Right Thing but you fear you'll never find a career (or a hobby!) that will remain interesting for very long...If you're a sweetheart of a person, kind and friendly and childlike in some ways, and you like to help people or make the world a better place, you're a Scanner.

If you wish you were born rich so you wouldn't have to work at all, just so you could play forever with fascinating ideas and concepts and skills and never again have to do anything boring, If you find yourself wildly enthusiastic about something and you believe you'll stay that way -- but after awhile the enthusiasm dies down and you become excited about something else, If people call you a dilettante or flakey or a 'hectic eclectic,' (as one person wrote me), well then, you're a Scanner.

And if you thought you were the only person like you and often wonder how you got so strange, you're a Scanner.

And that last part -- feeling like you're the one oddball in a world full of specialists -- is exactly what makes a retreat the most unforgettable experience of a lifetime. You see, Scanners are among the best people in the world. And they get the worst rap. But at a 5-day retreat with other Scanners, they discover a perspective that's impossible to get any other way. Surrounded by people who are so familiar, so unjudging, Scanners tell me they feel as though they've come home. It's really something to see.

I get to spend hours each day working with a group of 15 - 17 Scanners, helping them find their goals, organize their interests, create plans, set up support teams, and ferret out and outsmart resistance.

On their own they have fun, go walking and swimming, travel around, shop, talk all night, draw on tablecloths, laugh a lot, and often build what might be lifelong friendships. (Three of the past retreats hold yearly reunions.)

And they write me wonderful letters...
"The most lifechanging thing about this trip for me is that I felt fully accepted for who I was as a scanner - and beyond that PROUD! After reading Refuse To Choose I felt UNDERSTOOD, but adding acceptance and pride in that was an entire new feeling. Being around people who supported my ideas instead of competed with them was entirely new to me. "

"...your work with me was nothing short of miraculous. I have [spent years learning about myself] and NEVER once did the issues come up that you identified so quickly. I really couldn't believe it and it is still sinking in. What I love is that you didn't tell me why I needed to be on the path I am on, you somehow pulled it out of me."
If you want to read more letters and see photos of the masseria or find out the details, the times, what's covered and not covered in the fees, head over to Genius Press and click on the Scanner Retreat page. And if you want to attend the next retreat from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1, this fall, sign up pretty quick because there are only about 7 spaces available as I write this mailer.

If you want to know more about Scanners and about the retreats, listen on your computer to the internet show about Scanners that we did on July 20, Right Here!

Take a look or give a listen and write me a letter. I'd love to hear from you.

Dreaming Scanner dreams,
Barbara