Reflections 6.0

The Reflections Retreat is a soul nutrient infusion. We serve up a potent cocktail of belonging, embodiment, vulnerability, self-expression, and celebration. We acknowledge the subtle pain of the disconnection and isolation inherent in our modern lives. We gather each year at Reflections to reunite with the deep-felt sense that we belong to ourselves in our body, with our people in the community, and at home here on Earth.

The transformative power of togetherness is often overlooked in the everyday commotion of our lives. Our separation from ourselves, each other, and the natural world gives rise to a kind of restlessness that Francis Weller identifies as an existential need to belong. In his book, Weller illustrates the origin of our longing to be under the Fourth Gate of Grief: What We Expected and Did Not Recieve.

"When we are born, and as we pass through childhood, adolescence, and the stages of adulthood, we are designed to anticipate a certain quality of welcome, engagement, touch, and reflection. In short, we expect what our deep-time ancestors experienced as their birthright, namely, the container of the village. We are born expecting a rich, sensuous relationship with the earth and communal rituals of celebration, grief, and healing that keep us in connection with the sacred…Our profound feelings of lacking something are not a reflection of a personal failure, but the reflection of a society that has failed to offer us what we were designed to expect and did not receive. At the core of this grief is our longing to belong.” - Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow

At Reflections, we build our program to remediate the repercussions of the loss of the village with content from facilitators devoted to (re)claiming residency in the heart, with one another, and on the planet. Immersed in the healing salve of our togetherness, a magical container is co-created with each person playing a vital role in the experience of the whole.