March 29, 2024

When I Am Among the Trees: A Weekend Retreat back

October 14 - October 16, 2022

125
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Theme: When I Am Among the Trees

"When I am among the trees... they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily." ~Mary Oliver

As autumn envelopes the landscape, the evolving colors of the fall forest draw our eyes to the beauty and majesty of trees. Seemingly attired in their most glorious finery, trees are beginning the work of transformation leading to another season of their lives. These wise and ancient ones model for us how to live in the flow of life, shining and secure in who they are. They illustrate the possibility of deep connections woven in a rhythm of reciprocity.  Sometimes trees offer themselves as icons, and we are gifted to glimpse the presence of the Ever-Creating-One who enlivens all.

On this retreat, we’ll open to the invitation to learn from the trees; there will be spacious time to “stay awhile” and soak in the beauty. We’ll join our prayers with those of the trees, listening for the longings of the more than human world in the times of peril for so many. Perhaps it will feel right to take the poet’s words into your prayers, and maybe even into your life: “(Y)ou too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”

Leader: Leah Rampy is the former Executive Director of Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation where she continues to lead pilgrimages as well as programs on contemplative leadership.  She is a long-time leader of retreats committed to contemplative prayer and Earth awareness as crucial dimensions of healing and hope for our broken world.