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These are bewildering times. Things seem to be coming apart: democracy, planet Earth, our nerves. The way forward feels cloudy, uncertain, and exhausting. As winding and wearisome as the path may be, it’s crucial that we allow time to renew our spirits and to restore our capacities for connection and courage, wonder and resilience.
The Milkweed Group and Prairie Oaks Institute invite you to join us for this life-giving series of mini-retreats: “The Winding Way: Courage for the Weary Soul.” Knowing the importance of human connection, especially in these times of physical distancing, we will gather online (via Zoom) in a cohort of no more than 20 people. Each session will be 90 minutes on the following Tuesday evenings (at 4:30 Pacific / 5:30 Mountain / 6:30 Central / 7:30 Eastern):
August 25: Learning to Pause, Pausing to Learn
Sept. 8: Finding My Roots
Sept. 22: In this Together: Solitude and Community
Oct. 13: Living in the Midst of Paradox: Dancing with Uncertainty / Learning to Walk in the Dark
Oct. 27: Islands of Sanity
Nov. 10: Vulnerability and Courage
Guided by experienced Circle of Trust® facilitators Karen Harding, Chris Johnson, and Diane Petteway, these Courage & Renewal® gatherings will help us to:
• Name and hold our emotional responses to the significant challenges of our time.
• Practice crucial skills and capacities of mind, heart, and body that help us live into these challenges.
• Enhance our ability to understand complex and interdependent systems and to treasure the wisdom of diverse perspectives.
• Remember and practice awe, astonishment, and gratitude.
• Be held by a remarkable community of support, inspiration, and positive relationship.
Each session will include a nourishing mix of solitude and silence, conversation, and opportunity for reflective writing. They’ll be grounded in your own experience and fueled with insights from poets, scholars, artists, naturalists, musicians, scientists, and various wisdom traditions. Strictly confidential practices of deep listening, discernment, and mutual support will be a key component.
Commitment and Cost:
While we encourage you to take part in the entire six-session series, we also recognize that kind of commitment may be challenging for some. We invite you to discern what works best for you: the first three sessions, the second three sessions, or all six. Since we also recognize that these are tough economic times, we suggest a donation $100 for the complete series (discounted from $60 for each set of three). We don’t want cost to be a barrier, so please let us know what can work for you by emailing Chris (cjohnso542@gmail.com). And since space is limited, please register now at https://milkweedgroup.regfox.com/winding-way.
Once we have your registration, we’ll send you some short pre-readings and the information to connect to the sessions via Zoom.
Courage & Renewal® Facilitators:
Karen Harding, MS, recently retired from a career teaching Chemistry and Environmental Science at Pierce College in Lakewood, WA. Her love of the natural world arose early and has shaped her professional and personal life. She believes that the more deeply we understand our place in, and our impact on, our surroundings, the more likely we are to know how to live a life filled with love, harmony and resilience. In addition to exploring the connections between body, mind and spirit, Karen enjoys bicycling, skiing, running, spending time with friends, gardening, and reading.
Dr. Chris Johnson is the product of the fields and prairies, lakes and forests of southern Minnesota, having grown up on a farm near Litchfield. He has more than 25 years of experience in teaching, speaking, coaching, and facilitating retreats with a wide range of audiences in education, faith-based, and nonprofit organizations around issues of vocation, calling, and purpose; life transitions; leadership development; experiential learning; and spirituality in life and work. He is founder and principal of The Milkweed Group, LLC, whose work is to create and hold safe, courageous spaces that nourish inner wisdom, sharpen clarity of purpose, and nourish capacity to live and lead for a better world.
Diane Petteway is a musician, a teacher, a writer and a lifelong learner. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband, Bernie and her cocker spaniel, Andy. In her 30 years of public education, she taught Kindergarten, 3rd grade and 5th grade, elementary through high school music, theater arts and was an international trainer for the International Baccalaureate program. She served as an IB coordinator in elementary and middle schools, and directed many elementary, middle school, high school and community musicals. She is passionate about connecting people in authentic and intentional community through theater, music and poetry. After retiring from public education, Diane has worked for various nonprofits promoting arts access and arts integration in schools, hospitals and organizations. She is fellow for the A+ Schools Network, a musician for Arts for Life NC, a Montessori music specialist, a Courage and Renewal facilitator, Chair of the Kirkridge Board and a Kirkridge Fellow. While no one should take advice from her on how to retire, she is a shining example of how to live a full and creative life.
More about Prairie Oaks Institute:
Prairie Oaks Institute is a nonprofit educational retreat center located on a 115-year-old farm campus on the edge of Belle Plaine, Minnesota on the southwest outskirts of the Twin Cities. POI’s mission is to be a catalyst of rejuvenation for people and the planet, and its work is to nourish expansive imagination, bold thinking, wise action, and cross-sector solutions to the unprecedented environmental and social challenges of our time. Please visit www.prairieoaksinstitute.org for more information.
We look forward to having you with us!