“Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic self-hood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks – we will also find our path of authentic service in the world.” ~Parker J. Palmer
The theme of this retreat – Standing at the Threshold – is offered as an invitation for you to reflect on some of the questions you may be holding at this time. How am I experiencing or perhaps reimagining my place within my community, my workplace, my environment? How do I choose to show up in the world? How do I listen and how am I present to others? What does it mean to be here in authenticity and vulnerability, with my doubts, fears and failings as well as my convictions, joys and successes? What tensions am I holding in my life, and how might I transform this experience from one of predicament to one of creative paradox? To what inner work or to what work in the world am I being called? Even if I am not sure of the nature of this call, or of what is being asked of me, how can I stand at this threshold with courage and integrity, with purpose and hope?
Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work; a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences. ~David Whyte
This retreat is based on the work of Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal. The Courage & Renewal® approach, described in Palmer’s book A Hidden Wholeness, focuses on cultivating our inner capacity to live a more authentic, meaningful, and engaged life. Informed by Courage & Renewal Principles, Practices, and Touchstones, we can create a trustworthy and intentional space to do our own soul work in community with others. Participating in a Circle of Trust® helps us to slow down, to listen to the wisdom of our inner teacher, to honor each person’s identity and integrity, and to renew our courageous spirit as we journey towards personal and societal wholeness.
Participants are invited to enter into the reflective and inner, but also communal, practices of the circle, within which openness, integrity and confidentiality are honored. The quality of the space is shaped by the practices that everything we do is invitational, and there is no fixing, advising, saving, or correcting. This retreat offers safe space for you to explore, in large group, small group, and solitary settings, the many intersections of your life, drawing on stories from your own journey, on insights from poets, storytellers, artists, the natural world, and on the wisdom of spiritual traditions. We will practice the skills of being present to ourselves and to others, of deep listening and of offering open honest questions, without trying to fix, advise or save. In this way, we help “hear each other into deeper speech”.
The theme of our retreat is aligned with the time of year: that threshold in the seasons in the northern hemisphere when we can sense that high summer is beginning to lean into autumn. As a way to begin to enter into this theme, I offer here some definitions and synonyms of “threshold”:
- The floor or entrance to a building or room
- The level or point at which you start to experience something, or at which something starts to happen
- The point at which something starts
brink, verge, dawn, door, doorstep, doorway, edge, entrance, gate, inception, origin, outset, point,, start, vestibule, point of departure, starting point
Testimonials:
- “I appreciated everything about [the retreat]: the poems, reflections, wonderful teachings and facilitator, the sense of community and belonging, the opportunity to practice deep listening.”
- “[I appreciated] the way Michèle was present – with calm and kindness that created a great sacred and special space that make it easy for me to connect.”
- “Open, honest questions are a thread that was salient to me through each of the sessions and in between them. I hugely appreciated the support to attend to this thread in a sustained and growing way.”
- “Michele did such a wonderful job. Just the way she connected to the material and shared it with such grace and authenticity.”
“Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. … When people are talking, there’s no need to do anything but receive them. … Listen to what they’re saying. Care about it. Most times caring about it is even more important than understanding it. …A loving silence often has far more power to heal and connect than the most well-intentioned words. …In the silence of listening, you can know yourself in everyone, the unseen singing softly to itself and to you.” ~Rachel Naomi Remen
