BOWWBLOG #35: The Murmuration at Matuod: What Happened When Nine Hearts Went Off-Grid
How a seaside sanctuary taught us that wholeness is found not in solitude, but in the shared flight back to ourselves
WHAT: Arriving at the Shore
Last week, an intentionally intimate group of nine individuals drove to the Matuod Sanctuary in Batangas for a four-day “Off-the-Grid Flowcation.” The tagline for this journey is “Your Pause Button. Your True North.”
Matuod is named for its waters—ma-tuhod, knee-deep. The South China Sea here is a gentle, shallow embrace. The calm, clear bay, a soft sandy beach, and a wooded path leading to our meditation hall created the perfect sanctuary. It was a living metaphor: we had come to wade into the shallows of our own being, where the depth is safe enough to see clearly what lies beneath the surface.
As the designers and facilitators, my team and I had a plan inspired by the seashore. But as we “arrived at the shore” and shared our intentions, a deeper truth emerged. The group’s hopes clustered around three universal yearnings: Self-Discovery, Emotional Peace, and True Connection. We had all come, in our own ways, seeking to be whole. We all have become integral parts of the flow!
SO WHAT: The Murmuration of Co-Creation
With that foundation, something magical happened. The rigid lines between “Coach-facilitator” and “participant” dissolved. The OTG became a living act of co-creation. I stepped from the helm into the circle.
We became like a murmuration of starlings—moving not as leader and followers, but as a single, fluid organism of hearts and minds taking flight together. This was only possible through what I now call ACTS:
· Absolute Abandonment to the moment.
· Complete Consent to be seen.
· Total Trust in the process and each other.
· Simple Surrender to what is.
In that safe and sacred space, we shed our pretenses, each at our own pace. We discovered that the journey to self is a lone voyage, yet you are never alone when others are on their own parallel paths, reflecting your light back to you. We found our purpose, as the poet Mark Nepo writes, in the exquisite truth "that we were all broken from the same nameless heart."
NOW WHAT: Carrying the Metta Home
As we prepared to leave, the Metta—loving-kindness—was as palpable as the sea air. On that beautiful shore, we shared our Ikigai and Vision Boards not with pride, but with compassion for our still-fractured world. We looked at the horizon not with naive hope, but with renewed, collective reasons for being.
The feedback was a balm: “Transformational!” “Life-affirming!” “I am seeing myself in a new light.”
But the real question for you, dear reader, is this: How do you carry a sanctuary home?
You may not have joined our last OTG, but the essence of the Flowcation is a practice you can begin today. It is about creating intentional "Off-the-Grid" moments in your on-grid life.
Your Call to Practice: Find Your Knee-Deep Water
This week, I invite you to one act of deliberate ma-tuhod—one step into a shallow, clear space of your own making.
1. Choose Your "Shore": Identify one 30-minute period in your week. This is your sanctuary.
2. Be Intentionally Intimate: For that half-hour, go fully off-grid. Power down all devices. Silence all notifications.
3. Wade In: Just be. Sit with a cup of tea and watch the light change. Take a slow walk without a destination. Lie on the grass. Don’t do anything. Just feel what it’s like to be a human being, not a human doing.
4. Notice the Murmuration: Afterward, ask yourself: What gentle thought or feeling, usually drowned out by the noise, finally had space to surface?
In these small, knee-deep moments of presence, we remember our piece of that nameless heart. We begin, as Nepo says, the lifelong practice of "loving ourselves back together."
Here are other opportunities to love ourselves back together:
Consider joining our weekly bookend Monday/Friday One Hour Mindfulness Meditation Sessions: https://www.thetlcsolution.com/mfm2
OR
Better yet, be a member of The TLC Community and have ready access to our joint Sanctuary: https://www.thetlcsolution.com/registration-page
-Susan Grace Rivera
Posted on: January 11, 2026
