Your December retreat begins here...

Hello,

First things first, here are your online retreat details:

(The link I sent last week was wrong, sorry!)

You can use this same link to access the replay as soon as the live event has ended.

For each online retreat, I offer you some extended activities so that you can make a whole day - or week! - of it. There’s a bit of me that thinks: Pffft! This is all busywork to make us feel better about resting. Throw it all out the window and just invite everyone to sit with a book and a cup of tea for a while! Or run yourself a hot bath, lie back, and do absolutely nothing.

But I get it - sometimes, we need something to do in order to draw a boundary around our time. So I’m going to offer you three suggested activities and a meditation to carry out around the day of the retreat, with the understanding that you can ditch them all and nobody will mind. The rest is the important bit.

Our theme this time will be ‘Meeting Winter’. Let’s get started.

Wrap up warm. Go outside and experience the lie of the year, right now. You could step out of your house, or go to the nearest woodland or beauty spot. Wherever you are, your work here is noticing. Pinpoint the experience of being at this exact point of the year, at this time of day. How does today smell? What does it sound like? What is the quality of light? How does it feel on your skin? 

Carefully observe what is available where you are at this moment: plants (dead or alive), fungi, birds, nuts and seeds fallen from trees. Maybe you want to write them down, or photograph them? What can you name, and what is mysterious to you? What do you notice that you’ve never noticed before? 

Choose some items that are freely available to you, and bring them back home.

Get your space ready for the retreat. Choose yourself a comfortable chair, and place it somewhere you can listen undisturbed. Spend some time making your space beautiful (to your eyes; not anyone else’s). Think about your view while we’re working together; can it include something fresh and green, like a plant; something scented; a source of gentle light; something warm; something that feels sacred to you; and something from your walk  in the previous activity.

This guided meditation takes about 20 minutes, and takes you through the seasons, helping you to live through your responses to each phase of the year.

In your journal or notebook, I’d like you to write about how you see the coming winter. Here are some starter sentences aimed at capturing the different associations you make with the darkest season (choose as many as you like):

And an extra bit of news: some of the exercises from this retreat are taken from my new Wintering course, which launches in January. It’s a 6 week process, designed to help people to reflect on their own, current winter. And, as Retreat members, you’ll get it for free! It just feels like a natural part of our work together. 

Anyway - I hope to see you next Saturday. 

Until then, take lots of care,

Katherine x