Men's Soul Tavern Retreat
THE RETREAT THEME:
Crisis-Chrysalis-Emergence
Finding Resilience & Agency In An Unraveling World
LifeBridge Sanctuary, Rosendale, NY, USA
Investment for the 2026 Soul Tavern is $1250-$1750
Questions?
Email: Anna@herosjourneyfoundation.org
From The Men’s Soul Tavern – January 2022
This Year’s Theme: Crisis-Chrysalis-Emergence
Finding Resilience & Agency In An Unraveling World
Those of us paying attention to what is transpiring in the ‘socio-political surround’ of our lives must continue to come to terms with our experience of unraveling & upheaval taking place in our personal and collective worlds.
On this retreat, we come together in the ‘tavern of the soul’ to listen deeply to the longings, concerns, and need for authentic self-expression residing within our hearts.
We aim to cultivate a renewed ‘strength of heart’ – as we live through our personal experiences of crises/emergence – in the tender and steady presences of one another.
We attend to ‘deeper truths’ hard to face, without pushing for untenable resolutions. We will bear together the conflicts and confusions in the ‘burning furnace’ of our worlds, in service of hard-won resilience and self-agency. We practice saying ‘yes’ to life as it is, and ‘yes’ to ourselves as we are.
“Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved.
They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that.
The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”
Creating Space For Restoration, Renewal & Hope
Our Soul Tavern Retreat provides men with a space to renew our hearts, re-make our minds, and restore our bodies in ways that bring us more fully into our own being. By doing so, we becomepart of a rich, kindred, communal presence and spirit.
On this retreat, you will find:
AN ADVENTURE – into the mystery and art of living more deeply and authentically.
A SANCTUARY – for your inner life, apart from the tumult and strain of daily life.
COMPANIONS – those who can accompany, receive, listen, and respond from our own truth.
A CALL – to weave yourself further into being a part of a regenerative story for our times.
Ask Me
William Stafford
Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.
I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.
An Orientation To The Soul Tavern Experience
In this kind of Tavern, we do inner work with light-hearted care to tap the soul-inspiring ‘Presence’ that wants to shine through our persona.
We begin each morning with movement, and offer both guided and silent meditation time for reflection. We follow this with a short presentation on the day’s theme, and subsequent whole group reflection/discussion.
The afternoons consist of small group breakout discussions to deepen individual reflections and sharing, and we provide time for solitude, and to be in nature, and walk on our 96 acres of land.
Our evenings consist of ceremonial and ritualized ways of deepening our engagement with truth and beauty, and to speak directly from the aliveness of our newly lived experiences.
Sunrise over Mohonk Preserve, atop Bonticue Crag.
This is often an early morning hiking activity during the Men’s Soul Tavern Retreat.
Turning To One Another
By Meg Wheatley
There is no power greater than a community
discovering what it cares about.
Ask “What’s possible?” not “What’s wrong?”
Keep asking.
Notice what you care about.
Assume that many others share your dreams.
Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Talk to people you know.
Talk to people you don’t know.
Talk to people you never talk to.
Be intrigued by the differences you hear.
Expect to be surprised.
Treasure curiosity more than certainty.
Invite in everybody who cares to work on what’s possible.
Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something.
Know that creative solutions come from new connections.
Remember, you don’t fear people whose story you know.
Real listening always brings people closer together.
Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world.
Rely on human goodness.
Stay together.
AMONG STRONG MEN IN THE TAVERN
Among strong men in the Tavern
I can speak a truth no one will laugh at: My heart
Is like a wild alley cat
In heat:
In every possible way we conspire to know
Freedom and love.
Forget about the common reason, Hafiz, for it only
Enslaves–there is something holy deep inside
Of vou that is so ardent and awake
That needs to lie down naked
Next to
God.
– Hafiz
An Interview With Luis Alberto Urrea
On Our Belonging to Each Other
We humans have this drive to erect barriers between ourselves and others, Luis Alberto Urrea says, and yet this makes us a little crazy. He is an exuberant, wise, and refreshing companion into the deep meaning and the problem of borders — what they are really about, what we do with them, and what they do to us. HAVE A LISTEN – 84 minutes.