Past Events

Give up all the other worlds, except the one to which you belong. - David Whyte

We live in a time between stories. For many, our old stories that tell us who we are and what life and the world is about no longer serve us well. A new story is emerging, but is not yet here. We know it is time to let go of much from our past to fully enter the new. It is time to cast off.

One practice that can help us say "good-bye" to what life has been is the "death lodge," often part of the preparation for a vision quest. The main focus of this retreat will be a long solo time on the land. Once you find a place that draws you to do this work, you then build a little lodge. Lying in that lodge you will invite people and other beings and landscapes one by one from the past for a final visit and conversation.

Join us for our traditional "non-traditional" Stations of the Cross at Rolling Ridge on Friday, April 18; this is the walking meditation we have done here for more than a decade, through the sacred spaces and forest paths in and near the Retreat House. The details of the script for this change every year but the core remains the same: re-visioned Stations created lovingly and prayerfully from gathered pieces of our lives (and always visually compelling), time for walking mindfully and in silence together through the springkissed forest, opportunities for speaking aloud the cry from our hearts, and finally a gathered community waiting in darkness and hope.

We'll begin with a simple Lenten meal of soup and bread at the Retreat House at 5 pm, followed by the Stations (probably beginning around 6).

"There are questions that can make or unmake a life, questions that have patiently waited for you, questions that have no right to go away." -- David Whyte, Sometimes

In the depths of winter's hibernation, are there questions waiting patiently for us to notice, hold, discern?

We invite you to join other men from our region for a "wilderness wandering" on February 28-March 1 at the Still Point Mountain Retreat at Rolling Ridge in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Let the natural world draw us into those spaces that are frozen in our consciousness.

We will begin with a shared evening meal between 6-7 pm on Friday night.

The time will include a series of individual and group interactions, wandering in the wilderness on Saturday, and conclude late Saturday afternoon with another communal meal.

The cost for the night will be $25 . Bring food for yourself and to share with others. The event is limited to 12 men, so be sure to sign up now!

I long to slip into cracks of silence where breath is connected to spirit and spirit to wind and a sense of oneness resonates in my core — Karyn D. Dedar

Gather at Still Point Mountain Retreat for Friday Vespers, followed by 7:00 p.m. dinner and Compline. Arrive Friday after 1:00 p.m. Retreat Ends 10:00 a.m. Sunday. Gathered participants will follow Prayer of the Hours until Sunday morning, interspersed with ample times for silence and rambling in the winter woods, warming around the fire, reading or writing in the library, reflecting through art, and enjoying one another in community. Come away and rest.