My journey to Assisi!

Margoth Tove Kalstad
June 23, 2011

I went to Assisi to work with myself in a Gestalt therapy group, 12 participants and to leaders. Our home was a Franciscan convent run by American/Italian nuns. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming and the lifestyle simple and we were encouraged to accept what we were offered and not bring in our own food.

Assisi is a special placed the other participants felt that very much and said it is a place where a lot of people is praying. To me that was a great awareness of our surroundings and I felt so good all the time in Assisi. So just being there was a healing experience to my soul. I enjoyed walking around in the city and exploring and I found people to be very friendly.

A part of our work there was visiting the mountain of Francis of Assisi where he lived in caves made by the nature and stood next to the tree where he spoke to the birds. Francis' bed was made of solid rock and I could touch where he used to sleep.

Today there is made a small convent there run by to monks and to nuns to receive pilgrims in memory of Francis of Assisi. We had a tour of the place and visited the caves where followers of Francis slept and it was kind of hard to imagine the life thy lived and how they survived. We had exercises there; one was just sitting down and listening being on our own for 30 minutes; and the next one was meditative walk. Both of them were quite interesting and absolutely an experience I would like to encourage others to do!

After our small exercises we gathered outside the grounds of Francis' convent and had lunch. In the evening we were able to share with one another about our experienced there and everyone spoke about the great love and peace thy felt and received. I decided to keep mine to myself because I found it hard to explain! When I came inside the gate to the convent I felt and had a heavy feeling on the top of my head, in that there was a lot of sadness of not been given recognition for the work and sacrificed thy have made on that mountain. And still today the people that followed Francis of Assisi and lived with him felt not recognized or appreciated for their effort.

I was astonished in my heart to have this experience and it changed something inside of me, since then I have been thinking of it and I feel grateful that they could share this with me. I think this experience could change more in me than what I could have done by study books about it. My visit to Assisi gave me more than I expected and I hope to go back together with my family to this spiritual town of Assisi.