The Gift of Story

A Retreat for Advent and the Winter Solstice
December 2-4, 2016
5 pm Friday (includes dinner) - lunch on Sunday (depart by 3 pm)
Rolling Ridge Study Retreat near Harpers Ferry WV

The season of Advent is a sacred time for people of faith who find their roots in the soil of Christianity. The Winter Solstice and the span of days surrounding it expand that sense of holiness and wonder to encompass religions and wisdom traditions from around the planet and down through time. This retreat is for all those who hunger for a time of quiet and reflection apart from the busyness of the season: a time to renew and re-invigorate one's faith and journey in a container of reverence and wonder.

It's a respite: a chance to pause, to prepare, to be present.

Open to people of all faith traditions, and to both women and men. In this special season, we are invited to ask three questions in the chambers of our own faith and hearts:

What is love? What is enough? And what does it mean to be incarnate and deeply inhabit this world?

Thriving on the Threshold

Becoming a Community of the New Story
October 21-23, 2016
Friday supper 6:00 pm = Sunday lunch
Still Point Mountain Retreat near Harpers Ferry WV

"You are in this time of the interim
Where everything seems withheld.
The path you took to get here has washed out.
The way forward is still concealed from you.
The old is not old enough to have died away.
The new is still too young to be born."
–John O'Donohue

We live on the threshold between two kinds of stories. The stories that have guided our civilization have led to great unraveling of the planet and of our culture. We long for a new story even as we notice signs of its quiet emergence. Many of us realize our personal stories are changing as well. In this difficult and uncertain time we wonder, where can we find a place of true connection and belonging?

Courting the Realm of Dream and Deep Imagination

Encounters with the Sacred in Nature and the Human Soul
September 16-18, 2016
Friday dinner 7:00 pm - lunch on Sunday
Rolling Ridge Study Retreat near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia




In the beginning was the dream.
Through the dream all things were made,
and without the dream nothing was made
that has been made.
-- Thomas Berry in The Dream of the Earth

Since ancient times the dream world has been understood to be a source of powerful messages, inspiration, and a pathway to wisdom and healing. Like everything around us, we humans were born from the dream world, from the heart of Divine mystery.

Sound & Silence 2016

Embodying prayer through the sacred rhythms of drumming, movement, nature and silence
August 19-21, 2016
5:00 pm Friday - 3:00 pm Sunday
Still Point Mountain Retreat near Harpers Ferry WV

“After silence, that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
— Aldous Huxley

"Do we know, each one of us, that we are bearers of the sacred beat of life? Do we know that we can honor that beat in one another and in all things? And do we know that it is this combination - of knowing that we are bearers of Presence and choosing to honor Presence in one another - that holds the key to transformation in our lives and world?"
— John Philip Newell

Music & Movement ... Drumming & Dance ... Listening & Silence .... embodiments of prayer allowing us to experience the sacred beat of life connecting us to ourselves, to one another, and to God.

Arts to the Ridge 2016

A creative spirit retreat for girls ages 10-16
June 26-July 1, 2016
supper potluck 3 pm Sunday June 26 - lunch Friday, July 1
Still Point Mountain Retreat near Harpers Ferry WV

Retreat to the Ridge and bring your art with you. If you draw, dance, sing, write, play a musical instrument, sculpt, sew, or otherwise create—this retreat is for you! Practice in an inspiring mountain setting; share creative experiences with one another; explore the connection between silence, spirit, and creativity; try something new in sampler sessions with guest artists. Parents and younger sibs welcome.

Retreat fee is $425. Register and pay by April 15 for $400. Scholarships are available, as well as family/sibling discounts, and discounts for girls of parent staff/artists.

Features:

Children of the Earth

Rolling Ridge annual retreat for children ages 4-8 and their families
May 6-7, 2016 Mother's Day Weekend
Friday, May 6th – Saturday, May 7th, 2016
Rolling Ridge Study Retreat

In our grasshopper and salamander days, who among us didn't ask why the grasshopper could jump so far -- or why the salamander had black dots on its orange body... We lived by wonder, for by wondering we were able to multiply a growing consciousness of being alive.
Richard Lewis, Living by Wonder

This retreat is designed as an inter-generational experience of nature, including:

Every Body's Prayer

Expressing Faith through Movement with Lindsay McLaughlin and Patricia Campbell Carlson
Monday May 2 - Friday May 27, 2016
An online e-course available 24/7

If you have ever lifted your arms in wonder, spun around to greet someone you love, skipped across a lawn, or even lit up with a smile, you know the thrill of movement and more: You know the joy of dancing your prayers. Your body is a vehicle for expressing all manner of spiritual practices, from wonder to peace, grace to reverence, play to beauty, yearning to loving. This is true no matter what the abilities of your body and no matter what you have been led to believe about your limitations.

Restorying the Heroine's Journey 2016: Sacred Circles and Wild Wanders

With Lisa Bardack, Julie Gabrielli, Katy Gaughan, and Lindsay McLaughlin
April 29 - May 1, 2016
Friday dinner 6:00 pm - Sunday lunch
Rolling Ridge Study Retreat and Still Point Mountain Retreat

"Women must begin to forge alliances that will add strength to their individual voices. Women must rediscover and share their wisdom to ensure the healing of the entire planet and humanity by tapping into the vast reservoir of energy that runs beneath our common ground and is creating a new wave of women's power."
--Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers

Three Centered Knowing: A Wisdom and Sacred Movement School

With Cynthia Bourgeault and Deborah Rose Longo
April 18-23, 2016
Monday dinner - Saturday lunch
Claymont Society for Continuous Education in Charles Town, WV

A special 5-day Wisdom and Sacred Movement School geared particularly to students of the Christian Wisdom tradition as taught by Cynthia Bourgeault will take place April 18-23, 2016 at Claymont Society for Continuous Education, 667 Huyett Rd., Charles Town, WV 25414.

The enneagram of transformation that Gurdjieff brought into Western culture was taught by movement and music, not just lecture. We all seek to deepen the work of transformation and presence in our own lives. Cynthia has given a practical definition of presence as three-centered knowing -- intellectual center, emotional center, and movement center all active and working and cooperating together.

But how do we get to that three centered awareness? Many of us in the Western culture have an overuse of the intellectual and emotional centers and a neglect of the movement center. This kind of "Movements Wisdom School" is necessary corrective work for many of us.

Between the Body and the Breathing Earth

A ReStorying Retreat with David Abram and facilitated by Julie Gabrielli and Jim Hall
October 8-11, 2015
Thursday dinner - Sunday lunch
Still Point Mountain Retreat near Harpers Ferry WV

"A world made of story is an earth permeated by dreams, a terrain filled with imagination. Yet this is not so much our imagination, but rather the world's imagination, in which our own actions are participant. As players within an expansive, ever-unfolding story, our lives are embedded within a psyche that is not primarily ours, but is rather the earth's." --from Becoming Animal by David Abram

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