upcoming offerings and inspiring links

“Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!

   What a task

  to ask

of anything, or anyone,

yet it is ours,

     and not by the century or the year, but by the hours.”

– Mary Oliver

Dear beautiful human,

Warm welcome to our new subscribers and heartfelt greetings to all. I’m writing from my usual perch near the bird feeder on our porch, which is currently full of the cheerful sounds of goldfinches, housefinches, sparrows, and chickadees. I’m listening to a spacious album I’ve loved since the early 90s. The daffodils, crocuses, violets, and hyacinths have begun to emerge in our neighborhood, and the snowcapped mountains are shining in the distance. It’s a beautiful day. And my heart aches to know that elsewhere, great violence and destruction are raining on so many good people, birds, trees, animals, water bodies, soils, and cities by mad leaders running amok. Praise the heart that is big enough to hold this grief with care and to keep loving the world, just as it is. I’m determined to show up with love alongside this tremendous ache.

A few things I am excited to share in this email:

Below, I’ll share several upcoming opportunities we’re hosting in the next few months. Toward the end of this email, I’ll share a list of inspiring links to add to our collective ballast of good things. Carl and I have been relishing the past several weeks with the wonderful people participating in our 13-month training, Refugia, which is even more beautiful than I imagined – and that’s saying something! I’m sending tender spring blossoms, gentleness, and courage your way.

On March 23rd, along with our dear friends Alexandre Jodun & Alyona Kobevka, we’re hosting a Council for Grief Tenders. This live online offering is for you if you’re holding space for grief in your community or if you’re aspiring to do so. Grief work is so necessary during these times, and it is so nourishing to gather with kindred grief tenders to share insights, questions, and encouragement. Offered on a sliding scale, recordings are provided. Read more and register here. 

My beloved Carl and our soul brother Alexandre are hosting Men of Depth Soul – a potent and soulful men’s group that begins March 24th. Spots are filling up! I can’t imagine men in better hands than those of Carl and Alexandre. Please read their beautiful invitation to join and feel free to share with any men who might be interested.

We are so thrilled to host a poetry reading and ceremony with Dr. Jaiya John. The Great Remembering will unfold over a few inspiring hours on Sunday, April 5th. Beloved friends Alexandre Jodun & Alyona Kobevka are hosting this gathering with us, and I can’t exude enough praise or enthusiasm about it! The contagious liberatory love transmitted by Jaiya is like nothing else I’ve experienced. During these collapsing times of The Great Forgetting — where mindless suffering, divisive polarization, and heartless injustice ravage so much of the world — we are in dire need of refuges of remembering, dignified communal spaces, and wise, loving teachers who can lead us back to the soul waters of homefulness. We are truly blessed to have this moment with a teacher, poetic elder, and wisdom-transmitter such as Jaiya John, who carries the unique and immense gift of remaining rooted in both the invisible terrain of the Divine as well as the embodied ground of our current global, historical, and socio-cultural context. The fruits that pour forth from Baba Jaiya’s spirit are a true treasure for our generation and the future ones to come. It is a rare gift to gather with Jaiya in this way, and in this lifetime. Don’t miss it!

In February, we hosted a beautiful online grief gathering called Alchemizing the Ache. We gathered for a few hours on Zoom with tender-hearted people from around the world. We rooted into gratitude, honored personal and collective grief, basked in poetry, held each other with such tender kindness, bolstered our courage to return to the world more open-hearted, and by doing so, we also raised $1002 of donations, which I was honored to send to two beautiful charities. We’re hosting another Alchemizing the Ache gathering on Saturday, April 18th, and you are warmly invited to join us. This event is offered entirely by donation, and once again, we look forward to alchemizing even a tiny bit of all this collective grief while raising funds for organizations doing good in the world.  You’re warmly invited to join us. (Note: This live online event is for participants in attendance and will not be recorded.) This grief gathering is 100% covid safe as we’ll be weeping and laughing together from the comfort of our own homes. 

We are filling up for our four-day Memorial Day Weekend Grief Ritual Retreat in Salt Lake City, cohosted with our beloved friends coming all the way from Peru. As of this writing, we still have a few spots left! If you’d like to join us for a beautiful gathering, including not only a beautiful, transformative grief ritual, but also full of music, poetry, joy, and nourishing connection with beautiful others, please apply soon. This is one of our favorite, most soulful and heartening gatherings of the year.

Our weekday embodied meditation is always available for you to join live or via recording. We offer this by donation. For as little as $3/month (or more if you value the offering and are able to contribute), you can sit in meditation with us 5 days a week. We host two sitting periods each morning. On Fridays, instead of a second sit, we check in with each other. It’s a wonderfully kind and supportive community, and you’re welcome to join us anytime or access our vast library of recordings. This practice of meditation is not intended as an escape from these challenging times, but rather to help us cultivate our capacity for grounded, compassionate, clear-eyed, and openhearted presence in the midst of it all. I am so grateful for this practice and this community!

And finally, for those local to the SLC area, Carl is hosting Musical By Nature, a heartening gathering of communal music making. No experience necessary and great fun. Such good soul food!!

Wed, March 25th 5:30-7 register here.

Wed, April 15th 5:30-7 register here.

Friday, May 15th 5:30-7  register here.

Next week, we’ll be opening registration for our Refugia Retreat in beautiful Boulder, Utah, from July 19-25th. We can’t wait!! Details coming soon.

Let us plant seeds of courageous lovingkindness in each interaction, inner and outer – an investment in a future harvest of deeper kinship.

The good news is that it’s possible, even now.

Let us imagine every encounter as an altar, every relationship a place to pour libations, to make offerings, to bless. Every seed we plant is a possibility for a new beginning. We’re cocreating the world we share in every moment.

Every tear that falls is evidence that we are not failing to love, and every single loving gesture matters.

Thanks, always, for making the world a kinder place. I’m truly grateful to be in it with you.

From my heart,

p.s. See below for a heartening list of links to peruse when you have time to follow some internet rabbit holes. :)

What inspiring links might you like to share?? I’d love to hear. Sending love and blessings, dear friends.