… details and registration in February 2025…


In this five-day in-person retreat, we’ll take a deep dive into the nature of grief, gratitude, and reverence. We’ll explore the relationship between these powerful emotional states and learn how cultivating gratitude for everything, even for our pain and suffering, can lead to reverence, and how increasing our capacity for reverence can enhance our lives and heal our planet.

In our time together, we’ll practice:

—finding safety in the present moment
—cultivating gratitude for all that life offers us
—creating stability through awareness of the body
—recovering our sense of wonder and reverence through poetry


 

Beneath the layers of habit and conditioning, beneath the strategies we devise and the identities we construct to feel safe in the world, there is an untainted essence, a mysterious and ever-present awareness that is our true nature. But for most of us, most of the time, we lose touch with this naturally awakened state. We live from the fearful ego rather than the open heart.

In this five day retreat, we’ll explore three related practices—Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons, guided meditations, and mindful poetry discussions—to help us remember and stay rooted in a felt sense of who we really are. When we live in alignment with our innate wisdom, we regain a sense of ease and peace that is profoundly nourishing, not just for us but for the field of consciousness we all share.

We’ll also be adding some writing practices to this retreat, but sharing your writing will always be optional.

 


“The greatest gift we can give our world is our full presence, and our choice, moment by moment, to stay present.” —Joanna Macy

When we’re fully present, even for a moment, we find the stillness and peace we long for are always already right here, waiting for us. Such moments can be a refuge, a safe haven from the anxiety of accelerating change and collective trauma we are all living through right now. They can also be, as Joanna Macy says, our greatest gift to the world.

But being present isn’t easy. In this two-day workshop, we’ll explore three related practices—Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons, meditation, and mindful poetry discussions—that strengthen our capacity to stay present even in the midst of challenging conditions. Unwinding habitual ways of moving, resting in the stillness of mediation, and engaging with poems not as puzzles to be figured out but as rich experiences to be enjoyed, all help orient us toward the present moment.

Participants may choose to do one or both sessions. The basic format and practices will be the same on both days, though the specific content will be different. Both days will feature:

  • A brief talk on Cultivating Presence
  • Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lesson
  • Guided Meditation
  • Mindful poetry discussion

For our poetry discussions, we’ll draw on two of John’s books: The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy and The Dharma of Poetry: How Poems Can Deepen Your Spiritual Practice and Open You to Joy.

The distant mountains
are reflected in the eye
of the dragonfly
 –Issa

We hope you’ll join us!
Alice & John

 

 


In this five-day in-person retreat, we’ll take a deep dive into the nature of grief, gratitude, and reverence. We’ll explore the relationship between these powerful emotional states and learn how cultivating gratitude for everything, even for our pain and suffering, can lead to reverence, and how increasing our capacity for reverence can enhance our lives and heal our planet.

We’ll use three related practices—Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons, guided meditations, and mindful poetry discussions—to deepen our understanding of these three themes.

In our time together, we’ll practice:

—finding safety in the present moment
—cultivating gratitude for all that life offers us
—creating stability through awareness of the body
—recovering our sense of wonder and reverence through poetry
—and more

Being on retreat, stepping away from our daily routines and habitual patterns, slowing down and immersing ourselves in spiritual practice, offers a powerful way to strengthen our spiritual practice. We hope you can join us!