Retreats: Feeding Mind, Body and Soul

August-September 2000

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

by Julie D. Johnston

Photo by Julie Johnston

I recently visited Cooper's Landing (on Pender Island in the Southern Gulf Islands), which offers an example of a retreat experience that is both affordable and accessible to Vancouver, Victoria and even Seattle.

Located on a wooded beachfront property where South and North Pender Islands meet, Cooper's Landing offers beautiful kayaking and other boating, as well as scuba diving tours to local caves and wrecks, scenic bicycling, and access to miles of hiking trails. It's walking distance to stores and restaurants, making a self-provisioned stay in the rustic lodge quite economical.

Bob Cooper considers his retreat centre "a great place to come and relax, to get rid of all the city tensions", which is what the Gulf Islands are all about. He told me, "There's a spiritual feeling about the place, because First Nations people visited here for thousands of years."

Cooper also enjoys adding extras to help people have a different sort of retreat experience: musical evenings of blues and jazz on his baby grand piano, tipi accommodation, and overnight camping trips in a cedar voyageur canoe. (Check out the website at www.cooperslanding.com or call 1-888-921-3111 for more information.)

Julie Johnston is an adult educator, as well as a Board member and intertidal students leader with the Georgia Strait Alliance. She "retreated" permanently to Pender Island over a year ago, where she communes regularly with the eagles and the orca whales ©

Also see in this this month's issue Retreats-Feeding Mind, Body and Soul