About This Year’s Theme: Saying ‘Yes’ To Life As It Is

On this retreat, we will gather together in the ‘tavern’ to listen deeply to the needs and expressions residing within our own hearts, and the hearts of our fellow travelers.

We will cultivate a renewed ‘strength of heart’ in the tender presence of one another, a resilient and beating heart capable of withstanding the conflicts and confusions in the ‘burning furnace’ of the world.  Only then can we say ‘yes’ to life as it is, and ‘yes’ to ourselves as we are.

With encouragement and support, we will uplift the very best in one another, look deeply into our own shadows, and find the inspiration to grow from the places of our least developed aspects of our being – a place where we can finally let into our hearts ‘the authority that only tenderness can bring‘.  

When we embrace the place within ourselves that can let the Wild God in, we feel at once foolish and empowered, vulnerable and strong, brimming with uncertainty and clarity in equal measures.

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 work and play to tap the soul-inspiring ‘Presence’ that wants to shine through our persona.  No matter how accomplished we feel our lives to be, or how much we may feel a chronic sense of failure thus far… we all need times of renewal that set the stage for the next phase of development that vitalizes our personal and worldly endeavors.

Our days of being together will be informed and shaped by morning yoga practice, embodiment meditations, immersions in nature, stories and teachings on the dynamics of vital living, and evening councils that invite our souls to envision and our egos to deeply let go – surrendering whatever doubts and resistances to accepting mercy and tenderness from life – and opening ourselves to wonder and delight.

A Brief for the Defense

By Jack Gilbert

We must risk delight.  We can do without pleasure,

but not delight.  Not enjoyment.  We must have

the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless

furnace of this world.  To make injustice the only

measure of our attention is to praise the Devil…

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