Reflecting On This Year’s Annual Retreat
Retreat centers are welcoming places that encourage transformative experiences, foster reconnection with natural rhythms like the sunrise, and give us plenty of space to settle in and go deep. The Retreat Center Collaboration supports retreat center leaders with a community of practice that helps us see and learn about the big picture--all the different forms that retreats take across the continent--so together we can create sustainable change and deepen our impact.
Our annual retreat last week at Five Oaks Centre in Ontario was a four-day celebration of this community. Such a joy to be together! 🍁🌿🌈
We discussed resilience, racial healing, land stewardship, learning through gaming and play, operations and programming, bringing core values to life, and more. Take a look at our session notes.
The retreat offered plenary sessions on the Retreat Center Collaboration and the Racial Healing Initiative, as well as multiple Open Space sessions, where participants could ‘vote with their feet’ to attend their choice of a variety of topical discussions led by peers. This created an atmosphere of camaraderie and opportunity, supported but not limited by the structuring agenda, which remained flexible and responsive to group needs throughout the event.
Colorful feather boas, musical instruments, an abundance of crafting supplies, and a variety of meeting spaces helped us maintain a creative and expressive environment where collaborative ideas could spring up naturally.
We started and ended each day with embodied practices like breathing, visualization, or simple movement exercise, which were led by a variety of community members. We held several of our group sessions outdoors, ate good food, danced, laughed, celebrated a few community members’ birthdays, and dedicated time to being quiet and listening to the land speaking.
This retreat was a wonderful reminder of the strength and resilience that comes from belonging to something larger than ourselves. We have so much to offer one another! May our relationships continue to deepen across this network, and may the retreat centers we care for continue to be places of healing and connection for all who need them.