Holding on and Letting Go: A Winter Retreat
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal
to hold against your bones knowing
your life depends on it;
and the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
(Mary Oliver)
Winter is a season in which we often slow down, reflect on the past and anticipate the future. Of our lives, our gardens, of our hopes and dreams. Join with others in this seasonal reflection on the paradox of holding on to that which is lifegiving, and letting go of that which burdens you or may have even served you well but is no longer necessary. Through music, reflection, small group sharing and alone time, you will have a chance to explore your own journey.
These retreats are reconnecting our inner and outer lives, and exploring the soul. For, when we catch sight of our soul, we can become healers in a wounded world, motivated to action from our hidden wholeness amidst the violence of the storm. The three facilitators (Paula Pedersen, Winton Boyd and Musician Sara Thomsen) bring their experience in several movements for change and justice, along with their facilitation skills and musical talent, to provide a rich mix of processes and activities for this exploration.
The second retreat is titled.
Friday, April 26 – Sunday, April 28
Friday – 4-8 p.m. (dinner included)
Saturday – 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m.(breakfast and lunch included)
Sunday – 9 a.m.-12 p.m. (breakfast and lunch included)
Parker Palmer writes, “before spring becomes beautiful, it is plug ugly, nothing but mud and muck. I have walked in the early spring through fields that will suck your boots off, a world so wet and woeful it makes you yearn for the return of ice. But in that muddy mess, the conditions for rebirth are being created.
…The word humus—the decayed vegetable matter that feeds the roots of plants—comes from the same root that gives rise to the word humility. It is a blessed etymology.
Though spring begins slowly and tentatively, it grows with.. tenacity…The smallest and most tender shoots insist on having their way, coming up through ground that looked, only a few weeks earlier, as if it would never grow anything again. …Their mere appearance, however brief, is always a harbinger of hope, and from those small beginnings, hope grows at a geometric rate. The days get longer, the winds get warmer, and the world grows green again.
During this springtime seasonal retreat, join with others as we reflect on how this season of mud and muck offers the possibility of renewal, hope and goodness even amidst the challenges, suffering and sorrow around us all. Through music, poetry, color, alone time, outdoor time, and small group time, you will have a chance to locate and name where hope lives for you this year.
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