Donne Tempo - Sunrise Springs
With great
ceremony the tea is prepared using the powdered
matcha that Natsuko quickly stirs, using a graceful
bamboo whisk of pale caramel color. Her even,
measured movements create a beautiful froth of tea.
Before drinking the tea, Natsuko invites me to partake of the dried sweets she had earlier presented. Beautiful, graceful and very sweet their taste is intended to balance the strong green tea, creating a remarkable balance of sweet and bitter.
She then beckons me to take the tea bowl and drink. The bowl is wide and deep and as you drink, you can only see the remarkable beauty of the green tea. The smell is full, balanced. The temperature is warm, inviting to be tasted. The bowl is important to the ceremony as for only during that moment of first tasting what has been so carefully prepared, you are lost in the senses of the tea – the smell, the color, the warmth, the taste. For that moment you are at peace.
Continuing the ceremony, Natsuko cleans each of her beautiful utensils drying them with her blue cloth. Her ladle for pouring water, the delicate scoop used to spoon the matcha into the bowl, the whisk and the bowl. The blue cloth is refolded with the same meticulous care, step by step being admired by both host and guest and then it silently disappears inside Natsuko’s elegant Kimono and obi sash.
This is a place of perfect peace and awe. A place where one may realize that the Tea Ceremony, with its roots dating back to Sho Jin warriors and Feudal Japan, my carry the secret of true happiness.
For Natsuko it is the happiness from that comes from welcoming her guests and creating for them a perfect moment.
For her guest, it was sharing a moment in time with this one individual knowing that, as the art of the scroll proclaims, a simple circle, and the peony, the smooth black river stone, that my journey would bring me back to Natsuko to once again reflect when my birthday returns next year.
Yes, this remarkable event took place on my 49th birthday. And I shall return for my 50th.
But this time, I will bring my girlfriends.
Sunrise Springs Spa
800.955.0028
505.471.3600
242 Los Pinos Road
Santa Fe, New Mexico
87507
Before drinking the tea, Natsuko invites me to partake of the dried sweets she had earlier presented. Beautiful, graceful and very sweet their taste is intended to balance the strong green tea, creating a remarkable balance of sweet and bitter.
She then beckons me to take the tea bowl and drink. The bowl is wide and deep and as you drink, you can only see the remarkable beauty of the green tea. The smell is full, balanced. The temperature is warm, inviting to be tasted. The bowl is important to the ceremony as for only during that moment of first tasting what has been so carefully prepared, you are lost in the senses of the tea – the smell, the color, the warmth, the taste. For that moment you are at peace.
Continuing the ceremony, Natsuko cleans each of her beautiful utensils drying them with her blue cloth. Her ladle for pouring water, the delicate scoop used to spoon the matcha into the bowl, the whisk and the bowl. The blue cloth is refolded with the same meticulous care, step by step being admired by both host and guest and then it silently disappears inside Natsuko’s elegant Kimono and obi sash.
This is a place of perfect peace and awe. A place where one may realize that the Tea Ceremony, with its roots dating back to Sho Jin warriors and Feudal Japan, my carry the secret of true happiness.
For Natsuko it is the happiness from that comes from welcoming her guests and creating for them a perfect moment.
For her guest, it was sharing a moment in time with this one individual knowing that, as the art of the scroll proclaims, a simple circle, and the peony, the smooth black river stone, that my journey would bring me back to Natsuko to once again reflect when my birthday returns next year.
Yes, this remarkable event took place on my 49th birthday. And I shall return for my 50th.
But this time, I will bring my girlfriends.
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Rooms -- The Oasis Within
Tucked
into the mountains of Santa Fe, Sunrise Springs
Spa is designed to be tranquil, inspirational and
healing of both mind and body. Blissfully this
aesthetic is repeated within the various room
styles available to guests.
Here in the most personal of spaces found at any resort the Zen-modern clean and calm of Sunrise Springs reflects owner Megan Hill’s personal vision as an artist and an advocate of peace.
"I am a great nature lover and have been involved in art — both as an artist and as a gallery owner for most of my life,” said Megan Hill, owner Sunrise Springs Spa. “I approach the design of a room to be an extension of both — I am inspired by the intimate spaces of our gardens and the enchanting colors of New Mexico."
A variety of rooms and casitas are located in buildings around the property. Each exuding its own harmony and style.
The rooms color schemes are taken from the mountain desert and springs around them. The burnt orange of the setting sun reflecting on the desert floor is found in fabrics, tiles and paints. The turquoise blue that is visually associated with Santa Fe is here and there. The brown of the tree bark. The black of the soil.
Art, in the furnishings and on the walls speaks of owner Megan Hill's background as a leading Santa Fe art gallery owner. It is her work and works from her personal collection that grace the walls of the public areas and guest rooms.
Casitas are individual suites are filled with amenities and luxury while the visual and emotional bearing of the property is continued. Casitas include a variety of features including kitchenettes, master bedroom-bathroom suites, computer alcoves, elegant fireplaces and private patios all of which are remarkable.
The casitas are a place to find peace or to enjoy the journey to rediscovery with ones partner, family or friend.
Perfect for girlfriends traveling together, there are casitas with two-double beds, allowing plenty of personal space within a shared environment.
Garden View rooms look out over the Healing Gardens creating a sensory experience that combines the sights, smells, sounds and feeling of the grounds beautiful gardens. Each Garden View room pampers with a spacious double sink bathroom and private balcony or patio. The Garden Rooms building also features a gathering space, the lounge, with adobe styled fireplace, terra cotta accents, deep comfortable chairs and booth style tables perfect for morning tea or an evening game of cards.
For those visitors seeking a more simple, elegant space The Pond View rooms each have a balcony or patio that allows the visitor to enjoy the meditative sounds of the water and the birds that it attracts. Somewhat smaller in size than other rooms, Pond View rooms provide a space perfect for a personal or shared retreat experience.
Whatever your lodging choice each experience is designed to exceed your expectations and to enhance your Sunrise Springs Spa experience.
(all photos courtesy of Sunrise Springs Spa)
Here in the most personal of spaces found at any resort the Zen-modern clean and calm of Sunrise Springs reflects owner Megan Hill’s personal vision as an artist and an advocate of peace.
"I am a great nature lover and have been involved in art — both as an artist and as a gallery owner for most of my life,” said Megan Hill, owner Sunrise Springs Spa. “I approach the design of a room to be an extension of both — I am inspired by the intimate spaces of our gardens and the enchanting colors of New Mexico."
A variety of rooms and casitas are located in buildings around the property. Each exuding its own harmony and style.
The rooms color schemes are taken from the mountain desert and springs around them. The burnt orange of the setting sun reflecting on the desert floor is found in fabrics, tiles and paints. The turquoise blue that is visually associated with Santa Fe is here and there. The brown of the tree bark. The black of the soil.
Art, in the furnishings and on the walls speaks of owner Megan Hill's background as a leading Santa Fe art gallery owner. It is her work and works from her personal collection that grace the walls of the public areas and guest rooms.
Casitas are individual suites are filled with amenities and luxury while the visual and emotional bearing of the property is continued. Casitas include a variety of features including kitchenettes, master bedroom-bathroom suites, computer alcoves, elegant fireplaces and private patios all of which are remarkable.
The casitas are a place to find peace or to enjoy the journey to rediscovery with ones partner, family or friend.
Perfect for girlfriends traveling together, there are casitas with two-double beds, allowing plenty of personal space within a shared environment.
Garden View rooms look out over the Healing Gardens creating a sensory experience that combines the sights, smells, sounds and feeling of the grounds beautiful gardens. Each Garden View room pampers with a spacious double sink bathroom and private balcony or patio. The Garden Rooms building also features a gathering space, the lounge, with adobe styled fireplace, terra cotta accents, deep comfortable chairs and booth style tables perfect for morning tea or an evening game of cards.
For those visitors seeking a more simple, elegant space The Pond View rooms each have a balcony or patio that allows the visitor to enjoy the meditative sounds of the water and the birds that it attracts. Somewhat smaller in size than other rooms, Pond View rooms provide a space perfect for a personal or shared retreat experience.
Whatever your lodging choice each experience is designed to exceed your expectations and to enhance your Sunrise Springs Spa experience.
(all photos courtesy of Sunrise Springs Spa)
Spa -- A Desert Find in Spa Samadhi
A truly
great spa is not easy to find. While there may be
many wonderful technicians and estheticians, a
spa is not just the building, the lobby, the
quiet room, the treatments or the therapists.
It is all that and more
A truly blissful spa experience can become the holy grail of those seeking natural and holistic health through topical and sensory administrations of healing herbs, citrus and plants.
Spa Samadhi at Sunrise Springs provides such an experience and it is worth the journey to experience. Samadhi mean bliss and transformation toward wholeness and here it can be found.
First walking into
the historic adobe building you feel the
strength of the outside sun baked into the red
clay walls and you hear the gentle sounds of
the water elements that inspire the spa.
Warmly greeted by director Cari Cohen, guests find themselves immediately and efficiently taken care of. A robe, slippers and lockers are provided before strolling to the quiet room, a place to sip herb and citrus infused waters, take a cleansing shower, mediate and relax.
It is so important to a fully rejuvenating spa experience to arrive early enough to fully enjoy this element of your treatment. If a spa does not offer a quiet room, and encourage you to come early for a few moments of unwinding prior to your treatment, you may wish to question the value of the treatments you will be receiving.
After a few moments, your practitioner arrives. For my treatment spa director, Cari Cohen provided thoughtful and caring administrations, whom had chosen a green tea wrap to assist in my relaxation and detoxification prior to my enjoying the Green Tea Ceremony with Natsuko.
A very pleasant surprise is upon entering into the treatment room you notice that instead of a closed in room with little air circulation, these rooms have expansive glass walls that look out over the ponds, while maintaining the guests privacy.
The healing effects and sounds of nature are present in the room as are the fragrances of Lavender, Bergamot, Lemon Balm and Clary Sage, grown outside the spa and used in many of their treatments.
The very talented Cari invites me to repose and be comfortable while she prepares the Green Tea mixture to be gently applied prior to being wrapped in soft cotton blankets for a period of rest.
Spa Samhadi uses strictly Naturopathica and locally made products, filled with wild harvested-herbs and indigenous plants in their treatments. In addition to the Japanese Tea Ceremony package, there is a Living Earth Spa treatment that includes a red clay body treatment prior to a session in the Raku Studio.
Entering into a spa, the guest brings with them many different pieces of their lives, some of which can be damaging. Through the careful administrations of a healing practitioner some of those negative elements are reduce and the sole is fortified in order to keep those that you continue to carry in perspective.
Spa Samhadi, bliss and a transformation into wholeness. Sought, found and reveled in.
It is all that and more
A truly blissful spa experience can become the holy grail of those seeking natural and holistic health through topical and sensory administrations of healing herbs, citrus and plants.
Spa Samadhi at Sunrise Springs provides such an experience and it is worth the journey to experience. Samadhi mean bliss and transformation toward wholeness and here it can be found.
Warmly greeted by director Cari Cohen, guests find themselves immediately and efficiently taken care of. A robe, slippers and lockers are provided before strolling to the quiet room, a place to sip herb and citrus infused waters, take a cleansing shower, mediate and relax.
It is so important to a fully rejuvenating spa experience to arrive early enough to fully enjoy this element of your treatment. If a spa does not offer a quiet room, and encourage you to come early for a few moments of unwinding prior to your treatment, you may wish to question the value of the treatments you will be receiving.
After a few moments, your practitioner arrives. For my treatment spa director, Cari Cohen provided thoughtful and caring administrations, whom had chosen a green tea wrap to assist in my relaxation and detoxification prior to my enjoying the Green Tea Ceremony with Natsuko.
A very pleasant surprise is upon entering into the treatment room you notice that instead of a closed in room with little air circulation, these rooms have expansive glass walls that look out over the ponds, while maintaining the guests privacy.
The healing effects and sounds of nature are present in the room as are the fragrances of Lavender, Bergamot, Lemon Balm and Clary Sage, grown outside the spa and used in many of their treatments.
The very talented Cari invites me to repose and be comfortable while she prepares the Green Tea mixture to be gently applied prior to being wrapped in soft cotton blankets for a period of rest.
Spa Samhadi uses strictly Naturopathica and locally made products, filled with wild harvested-herbs and indigenous plants in their treatments. In addition to the Japanese Tea Ceremony package, there is a Living Earth Spa treatment that includes a red clay body treatment prior to a session in the Raku Studio.
Entering into a spa, the guest brings with them many different pieces of their lives, some of which can be damaging. Through the careful administrations of a healing practitioner some of those negative elements are reduce and the sole is fortified in order to keep those that you continue to carry in perspective.
Spa Samhadi, bliss and a transformation into wholeness. Sought, found and reveled in.
Who is Megan Hill?
One only
needs to visit Sunrise Springs Resort and Spa to
know that Megan Hill has a deep respect for the
land and how we can interact, learn and heal from
it.
Within her vision statement located at the Sunrise Springs Web site she says
“I would like you to leave with a hunger to know more of the kinds of experience that make up peace, inspiration and pleasure. My ultimate vision is to promote peace in a world that thrives on conflict.”
Peace comes from within and world peace can be visualized one person at a time. Megan has been spending her time creating “inn in a tiny village in the mountains of New Mexico” as a place to find and promote peace. Here she hopes we may accept the concept of mindful living and the simple joy to be experienced through it.
We asked Megan
about her transformation from Santa Fe Art
Gallery Owner to inn-keeper, and this is what
she had to say.
Donne Tempo: Have you lived in the Santa Fe area all of your life? If not, what drew you to the area?
Megan Hill: I came to the Santa Fe area in order to go to graduate school (art, UNM, 1967) but I was introduced to it because my parents had bought a ranch in the area when I was a teenager. I grew up outside of Chicago.
DT: You lived in the adobe Blue Heron restaurant building prior to acquiring the land for Sunrise Springs. It is quite remote, how did you find this historic building, the springs and envision the creation of this retreat while maintaining its history?
MH: The adobe house, which now houses the Blue Heron Restaurant, along with the library, were the two existing buildings at Sunrise. The library was a thick walled stable area with some charm.
The charm of the house, which did come with the land, was almost entirely obscured by dark paneling on all of the walls as well as wall-to-wall carpeting, red shag on the floors. It was white with turquoise stones outside for decor.
It wasn't too hard to see through this to the classic adobe hidden within but it was the ponds that were the attraction. The old cottonwoods were there but very little vegetation other than that looking over simple alfalfa fields. There also were some beautiful vistas now obscured by overgrowth down the valley.
It breathed magic from first sight. My then husband Jim Hill and I got it from a local realtor but there is a story to that that is another story.
Envisioning a retreat was later, after we had lived there and made quite a few changes which now exist in a modified form. I divorced, rented it out and then later begin to modify, as money permitted, in bits and pieces, as a retreat.
It was quite episodic and only the last portion really conceived as an overall building plan in response to demands of the county. The aesthetic has evolved out of a long time love affair with the New Mexico landscape and a much later, love of Japanese Tea and the Japanese aesthetic.
DT: Sunrise Springs combines a desert and Asian esthetic through a very gentle melding of art and décor. How does this reflect who you are?
MH: I am into all those things, the desert, nature in general more and more, and a quiet aesthetic. I have a background in art, a BA from UNM, and had a number of shows in the early years. I had a gallery, Hill's Gallery in Santa Fe for the decade of the 70s which was large and inclusive, including crafts, but definitely contemporary and focused on cutting edge concepts and innovative use of materials.
I now more enjoy the beauty and resonance of things aged, although I do still enjoy a wide range of art. I am not a fan of much new age sweetness in either art or music.
DT: Sunrise Springs has evolved to offer numerous experiences. How have you, as an artist, determined the “next piece” to be designed and offered at Sunrise Springs?
MH: The inspiration for another project is stimulated in different ways. Mostly, these days, in response to a request to pay attention to a certain areas whether they are physical or operational. Inspiration, might be an aspect of focus, if focus can include the non linear.
DT: Within your artwork, what mediums do you work in? Do you inspire your artwork or does your artwork inspire you
MH: I have been working in water soluble pencils and crayon, and a little in Gouache and also clay. I have mainly just one mantra which is “keep on going.:
At the best of times, it all merges and a drawing just seems to emerge on its own. I use to construct large and heavy or even small but complicated three dimensional pieces, and now I deliberately choose simple materials and subject matter because I like that feeling of focus and merging and find it easier without having to deal with all that technical debris. For some the technical is the creative focus. I really believe more in focusing than inspiration I guess.
DT: Who do you admire most as an artist?
MH: I don’t know but I love the Japanese tea bowls of Chogiro , the first of the Raku lineage, some others in the Raku lineage as well. I love the unknown craftsmen, in general. I also love the work of Durer, Rembrandt, and Noguchi, and more.
I had a gallery in the 70s, Hill’s Gallery and so that is an era I identify with. I am a little out of touch with the art world and the person I observe the most is my partner, Carl Johansen who does the most cerebral, technically challenging, weird and witty work (computer) and I admire his utter innovation, competence and commitment.
DT: What/which woman/women do you admire?
MH: I always admired Guru Mai who took on a formidable task when she was very young requiring great discipline and compassion.
DT: What do you dream of accomplishing next?
MH: I have my dreams, which include an separate spa building and more rooms. A friend and I envision a 60 foot earth sculpture including some form of maze and or sacred geometry.
Within her vision statement located at the Sunrise Springs Web site she says
“I would like you to leave with a hunger to know more of the kinds of experience that make up peace, inspiration and pleasure. My ultimate vision is to promote peace in a world that thrives on conflict.”
Peace comes from within and world peace can be visualized one person at a time. Megan has been spending her time creating “inn in a tiny village in the mountains of New Mexico” as a place to find and promote peace. Here she hopes we may accept the concept of mindful living and the simple joy to be experienced through it.
Donne Tempo: Have you lived in the Santa Fe area all of your life? If not, what drew you to the area?
Megan Hill: I came to the Santa Fe area in order to go to graduate school (art, UNM, 1967) but I was introduced to it because my parents had bought a ranch in the area when I was a teenager. I grew up outside of Chicago.
DT: You lived in the adobe Blue Heron restaurant building prior to acquiring the land for Sunrise Springs. It is quite remote, how did you find this historic building, the springs and envision the creation of this retreat while maintaining its history?
MH: The adobe house, which now houses the Blue Heron Restaurant, along with the library, were the two existing buildings at Sunrise. The library was a thick walled stable area with some charm.
The charm of the house, which did come with the land, was almost entirely obscured by dark paneling on all of the walls as well as wall-to-wall carpeting, red shag on the floors. It was white with turquoise stones outside for decor.
It wasn't too hard to see through this to the classic adobe hidden within but it was the ponds that were the attraction. The old cottonwoods were there but very little vegetation other than that looking over simple alfalfa fields. There also were some beautiful vistas now obscured by overgrowth down the valley.
It breathed magic from first sight. My then husband Jim Hill and I got it from a local realtor but there is a story to that that is another story.
Envisioning a retreat was later, after we had lived there and made quite a few changes which now exist in a modified form. I divorced, rented it out and then later begin to modify, as money permitted, in bits and pieces, as a retreat.
It was quite episodic and only the last portion really conceived as an overall building plan in response to demands of the county. The aesthetic has evolved out of a long time love affair with the New Mexico landscape and a much later, love of Japanese Tea and the Japanese aesthetic.
DT: Sunrise Springs combines a desert and Asian esthetic through a very gentle melding of art and décor. How does this reflect who you are?
MH: I am into all those things, the desert, nature in general more and more, and a quiet aesthetic. I have a background in art, a BA from UNM, and had a number of shows in the early years. I had a gallery, Hill's Gallery in Santa Fe for the decade of the 70s which was large and inclusive, including crafts, but definitely contemporary and focused on cutting edge concepts and innovative use of materials.
I now more enjoy the beauty and resonance of things aged, although I do still enjoy a wide range of art. I am not a fan of much new age sweetness in either art or music.
DT: Sunrise Springs has evolved to offer numerous experiences. How have you, as an artist, determined the “next piece” to be designed and offered at Sunrise Springs?
MH: The inspiration for another project is stimulated in different ways. Mostly, these days, in response to a request to pay attention to a certain areas whether they are physical or operational. Inspiration, might be an aspect of focus, if focus can include the non linear.
DT: Within your artwork, what mediums do you work in? Do you inspire your artwork or does your artwork inspire you
MH: I have been working in water soluble pencils and crayon, and a little in Gouache and also clay. I have mainly just one mantra which is “keep on going.:
At the best of times, it all merges and a drawing just seems to emerge on its own. I use to construct large and heavy or even small but complicated three dimensional pieces, and now I deliberately choose simple materials and subject matter because I like that feeling of focus and merging and find it easier without having to deal with all that technical debris. For some the technical is the creative focus. I really believe more in focusing than inspiration I guess.
DT: Who do you admire most as an artist?
MH: I don’t know but I love the Japanese tea bowls of Chogiro , the first of the Raku lineage, some others in the Raku lineage as well. I love the unknown craftsmen, in general. I also love the work of Durer, Rembrandt, and Noguchi, and more.
I had a gallery in the 70s, Hill’s Gallery and so that is an era I identify with. I am a little out of touch with the art world and the person I observe the most is my partner, Carl Johansen who does the most cerebral, technically challenging, weird and witty work (computer) and I admire his utter innovation, competence and commitment.
DT: What/which woman/women do you admire?
MH: I always admired Guru Mai who took on a formidable task when she was very young requiring great discipline and compassion.
DT: What do you dream of accomplishing next?
MH: I have my dreams, which include an separate spa building and more rooms. A friend and I envision a 60 foot earth sculpture including some form of maze and or sacred geometry.
Destination 411
Sunrise Springs Spa
800.955.0028
505.471.3600
242 Los Pinos Road
Santa Fe, New Mexico
87507
