Weaving The Sturdy Threads
— an in-person, residential immersion for women —
(application and interview required)
“There is a thread you follow…” *
It is no secret––though few professionals in the mental health field speak to this––that all our ills stem from the dismantling of our villages, from the atrophying of our intimate communal, community-oriented muscles.
Very little of what ails, entices and preys upon us would find successful purchase were we still enwebbed in diverse, vibrant, multi-generational collaborative community (human and more-than human).
Grief, rage, fatigue, uncertainty, longing and despair lay in wait around each corner. Sometimes, inexplicably, we sail right past them as if being pulled forward by the invisible and sturdiest threads of our belonging, and the responsibilities that come with it.
Though sometimes we do lose ourselves. The things that snag us are, themselves, clues to the unique story unfolding within each of us. But they are not for us to identify and explore on our own. Nor in the one-dimensional and orphaned context of therapy or the quiet private pages of our journals. The things that send us to our knees – whether in awe or despair – are matters for our community. Because they are aspects of the larger unfolding Story of The World that must be felt and woven, heard, and spoken. You see, the threads we each follow weave together to form a wisdom pattern, a way through, both an invitation and a map.
“It goes among things that change, but it doesn’t change…”
This immersion is for women leaders, teachers, healers, artists and creatives of all kinds, all students always, devoted daughters fiercely bound to The World in a to-the-death-and-beyond betrothal; those rare bejeweled birds who have made their way across the hard-to-find threshold into initiated adulthood; who have spent some years offering their particular and unique soul’s gifts to this ailing and breathtaking miracle that is The World … and who, without warning, find themselves faltering in the jagged scree fields of these times. Or perhaps you would not describe yourself as faltering, but you can feel your soul’s fuel tank getting dangerously low. Online programs just aren’t doing it for you. You need some good old-fashioned eldering, some well-mothering, some singing and dancing, some fire-side wailing and visioning, imagining and becoming, solitude in community, reflection of wise sisters all of whom – each of us – have our own wellness to willingly and gracefully contribute, the sturdiest threads, to our communal fabric.
Let me tell you – this is not a weekend focused on our ‘healing’. It’s not a time to talk about “me” and what “I need” and what “I didn’t get” or what was “done to me”. If this is the conversation you’re currently having, this program is not for you at this time. That is certainly essential work, but it’s healing work and this weekend is dedicated to those of us who are actively ‘wholing’ – orienting our lives around our service and offerings, focusing on the nourishment, skills and wisdom we require to be of service. This is a basket with ample room for those whose orientation is to The World, to our service, who measure a day’s merit by how wonderfully and exactly we have been used up by The World (and miraculously therefore mostly filled up by it). This is a weekend for those of us who find ourselves stumbling, whether because we are overly burdened with grief and despair; or because we have used metrics for our wellness that no longer apply; or perhaps because we have realized that though we have oriented our lives around service we can’t quite see what is most required of us at this particularly unfathomable time.
“People wonder about what you are pursuing…”
If you are drawn to join us in this very intimate, unpolished and nutrient-dense four day immersion, it is likely you are chewing on a particular seed, perhaps tugging at the tightly embedded threads of a particularly recalcitrant knot…this is the place to bring these struggles. What you are struggling with is no random thing. Your conundrum, this knot, this tough seed, is very likely a crucial piece of the way-through of these times, for all of us. Rather than things to be solved so we can get on to the real work, they are more likely the heart of the matter. Not only that, but these conundrums likely fit together to provide a larger view of the unfathomable terrain we find ourselves in. Critical information not to be relegated to the pages of our journals or poured into the sterile space of the fifty-minute hour we are allotted in our therapist’s office.
No more than four, we will remain a small enough group to spend ample time with everyone’s unfolding story while being large enough to have diverse perspectives and reflective capacities.
We begin Thursday at 3pm and conclude Sunday at 3pm
Our Scheduled time will be approximately 5 hours on Thursday and Sunday, 6 or 7 hours on Friday & Saturday (approximately), not all of which will be spent in the entire group. This is simply the average scheduled time.
We will share dinners Thursday through Saturday. Breakfasts and lunches are yours to provide for yourselves though we will likely eat lunches together. We will share a communal kitchen.
This is a residential program. Meaning the preference is that we stay together. There are options for you to bunk in rustic accommodations on my small plot of suburban land, in a shared room, camping in the field or fireside in The Kirkja, curling up on a mattress in a cozy corner or on our couch. This will be intimate, rustic and close-to-the-earth . . . on purpose. There is a medicine, an old nourishment that comes from this kind of living, in the Women’s Hut, where all our basic requirements are more than tended to, where we have the potential to realize we’ve been told we need things that actually distract and numb us. In The Women’s Hut we have the opportunity to experience a very old way of living and being together, a way of sharing space and the choreography of sisterhood and weaving, that is all but lost (and strangely denigrated) in our current society. Of all the things we remember about this weekend, it’s likely the basic living experience will be at the top of the list. NOTE: I live with two canines, very furry, very lovable and (somewhat?) well behaved. If you have an allergy to dogs this is not the program for you, sadly.
Minimum 4/Maximum 6 participants
Sliding Scale tuition - $1700 - $2100
(Some partial scholarships available)
1 work study position (we will negotiate the discount based on the tasks you are able to do, among them could be help with group dinner planning, shopping and prep; tending to our physical spaces – the Kirkja, the house, etc; pre-arrival assistance – tuition payment plan administration, medical forms, etc)
Scroll to the bottom for the application questions. This is an informal application process. If you’re interested in participating simply respond to the questions in an email to me and we will begin our conversation.
Among so many other things none of us could possibly know, in our time together we will:
- Support each other in our deep listening, even as the noise and the insanity exponentially increase
- Reflect back to each other the nature of our listening, discerning the notes of this unfathomable time we are each uniquely designed to hear, and perhaps we will even explore some ancestral threads to remember that these ears come from somewhere, representing tens of thousands of years of ecology’s endlessly wise evolutionary unfolding
- And of course we will combine our formidable capacities to unfurl into spontaneous ceremonies of grief, rage, longing, joy and raucous celebration as we clear out our cupboards of all that doesn’t nourish us, needs to be moved to be honored and/or simply isn’t relevant to our journey
- Immerse our precious bodies into the cold waters of Boulder Creek, nourish ourselves with delicious clean foods, share our dreams, sit in silence together and so, so, so much more
“You have to explain about the thread…”
We might find ourselves exploring questions like:
- What stories guide us? What are the ever-evolving cosmologies that hold each of us and our people in a well-enough basket?
- What does it mean to be sane? How can we cultivate a nimble definition of sanity, to keep up with our crazy-making devolving human experience?
- How do we both hospice the death of the human-made world while simultaneously midwifing the nascent dream of The World?
- What are the daily ceremonies of well-keeping and wildness that are the inoculations for these times?
- Any my favorite, whom do you work for?
“But it is hard for others to see…”
“While you hold it you can’t get lost…”
To being your enrollment process, please take some time to respond to the below questions and email them off to me. We will have a short conversation and if it seems like a fit, we can go from there!
Application Questions (to respond to in an email to me):
1. What makes this the right time for you to join us in this immersion?
2. What form(s) have your soul’s gifts taken up to now?
3. What is the particular conundrum/question/piece of sand in your oyster shell/brilliant lament that you’re living with these days? (Note, we will not find solutions during our time together. Rather, we will mingle our conundrums/questions/pieces of sand/brilliant laments together and see what emerges.)
4. What is the flavor of heartbreak/lament you are tending…and why this? Please be specific. No matter what, give me a few sentences about why this particular thing?
“You don’t ever let go of the thread…”
* William Stafford, The Way It Is