Men's Soul Tavern Retreat
Weaving The Retreat Into The Context Of Our Times
Do What You Can – From Where You Are – With What You Have
We are looking at creative ways to make our journey work as deep and as effective as possible, in the midst of a global pandemic that requires us to be responsible and stay safe – while also providing opportunities to do enriching and essential work, borne out of the times we are in.
What we find makes depth work most effective to set up conditions for looking inward with a focused attention, and introducing new ways of thinking about the challenges and threats we are facing.
We look to balance this with active communal participation – exchanging with others – in order to better bring forth and clarify what it is we are working in ourselves, and testing it out in our exchanges. We need to do that with people that we are closely connected to, of course, but we also need new and fresh encounters with others, and to be open to new and unexpectedly life-giving exchanges that enlarge our world.
This is no easy task during a pandemic. But we are giving this our best attempt.
We Are Doing Our Inner Work Online For Now
We have become quite proficient in doing deep online work over the past four years, despite the limits and the barriers of the screen in front of us.
We have learned more about what it takes to keep people focused and engaged in meaningful and embodied ways of reflecting within.
We have also learned how to best keep people on track and engaged in meaningful exchanges with one another in enlivening dialogues.
It is essential that we learn to speak directly from what we are currently living through as people, in our day to day struggles, and we need to be contained by active witnesses who can listen, and who can reflect how we impact them with our sharing.
The beauty of our time now is that we can make it a priority to connect with people from across the US and across the globe in an online format, simply because it is now possible, and because we can care about one another’s lives in this way, even at a distance.
We Are Weaving The Retreat With The Ensemble Hero’s Journey
We have found it to be important to stretch ourselves to be closer to those we can truly rely on, such as in our Ally Groups.
It is just as important to take new risks, find meaningful and sustainable ways for more community based exchanges as well.
For that reason, we have included the Ensemble Hero online journey (our third version) to the price of the retreat.
It will allow you to be part of a co-ed experience of people who want to take risks, want to reach out, and want to try new experiences – even while having to be confined at home.
Ensemble Hero allows us to counteract the lethargy and isolation of staying physically distant from those we care about, with online encounters that have spontaneity and synchronicity at play.
It allows us more opportunities to become capable of the unexpected, and to consistently reach towards the common good.
“I have a firm belief in this now, not only in terms of my own experience, but in knowing about the experiences of other people. When you follow your bliss, and by bliss I mean the deep sense of being in it, and doing what the push is out of your own existence – it may not be fun, but it’s your bliss and there’s bliss behind pain too…You follow that and doors will open where there were no doors before, where you would not have thought there were going to be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anybody else…
There’s something about the integrity of a life and the world moves in and helps. It really does…And so I think the best thing I can say is, Follow Your Bliss. If your bliss is just your fun and excitement, you’re on the wrong track. I mean, you need instruction…Know where your bliss is.
And that involves coming down to a deep place in yourself.”