We took The Pearl to Amorgos 🇬🇷
I'm writing to you from Amorgos, Greece, where somehow we're already reaching the final days of our very first retreat. I'm sitting on my hotel balcony, overlooking little bright white buildings against a mountain backdrop, the clear sparkling sea in front of them, and the expansive blue sky above.
I honestly don't know where the week went. It feels like we just landed, bleary eyed and jet-lagged, introducing ourselves over dinner like it was the first day of school. Now we're packing bags and already talking about coming back.
One of my favorite parts of this week hasn't actually been Greece (though don't get me wrong - Greece is SPECTACULAR). It's been watching this group of people become a community.
Some of us arrived as longtime friends, or even literal sisters. Some only knew each other as familiar faces across the studio. Some had never met before at all. Now we're sharing meals that stretch on for hours, laughing until we cry, swapping life stories under the full moon, and sharing chaffing butter on hiking trails, looking out for one another's inner thighs without thinking twice.
Our group spans almost forty years - 24 to 63, and comes from every corner of the Bronx and beyond. We're a little louder at dinner than the other tables, a little quicker to laugh. Always unabashedly Bronxy, even eight time zones from home. It's been such a good reminder that movement has always been about more than exercise - it makes room for people who'd never have crossed paths otherwise to suddenly feel like family.
Amorgos itself has been magical, and in lots of little ways, it reminds me of City Island. Part of the Cyclades, a tiny island with a year-round population of about 2,000 that fills up every summer with visitors from everywhere. Life revolves around the water. Everyone seems to know everyone. Things move just a little slower here.
This week we've practiced yoga with Joann looking out over the Aegean, done Pilates that Jenn somehow made both beautiful and completely exhausting at the same time, melted into Mila's bodywork sessions, wandered barefoot along the shoreline exploring our senses, floated quietly in the pool during meditation, climbed 300 steep, slippery stone steps to meet a 90-year-old Greek Orthodox monk in a cliffside monestary, learned to make loukoumades (Greek honey doughnuts), and eaten enough incredible food that I may never recover.
It's been equal parts restful and completely full.
More than anything, this week reminded me how valuable it is to step outside your normal routine every once in a while - not because everyday life isn't great too, but because leaving it for a few days has a way of helping you see it more clearly when you get back.
I've spent a lot of time this week sitting beside the Aegean, watching the water and thinking about everything The Pearl has grown into over the last few years. A retreat like this felt impossible not that long ago. Now here we are, halfway across the world, a group of genuinely wonderful women from The Bronx, sharing sunsets on a tiny Greek island.
That's a pretty remarkable thing.
I'll be leaving Greece deeply grateful, every so slightly sunburned, extremely well fed, and carrying home a lot of inspiration. You'll probably start seeing little pieces of this trip show up in our classes, workshops, and community over the coming months.
Until then, we'll see you back on the mat very soon 💙