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I came home for the planning retreat for this program to find this quote on a Unitarian Church website:

"We are all longing to go home

to some place we have never been —

a place half-remembered
and half-envisioned

we can only catch glimpses of from time to time.

Community.

Somewhere,
there are people to whom we can speak with passion

without having the words catch in our throats.

Somewhere
a circle of hands will open to receive us,
eyes will light up as we enter,

voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into our own power.

Community
means strength that joins our strength
to do the work that needs to be done.

Arms to hold us when we falter.

A circle of healing.

A circle of friends.

Someplace where we can be free"


We are welcomed in such a way by the earth.

May we also find such welcome in the sanctuary of women.


all is well,

vicki

Nurturing Women in the Sanctuary of Earth

An Oasis Program Offering Of Whole-making for Women in Nature

We understand that  for many women one or many of these essential relationships is broken in some way and trust that attending to any one (one woman, one brokenness, one relationship) heals many.  Many women experience sanctuary and communion in natural settings, as what is ‘spoken’ there resonates with the interior terrain of their own earthy nature,  but while being in the company of other women these same women may feel quite disconnected. The opposite is often true.  In both circumstances there is some alienation from that which is deep within a woman’s own soul, which she sees mirrored in the ‘other’.  Our hope is to offer many opportunities for gazing into these mirrors.

There may be certain areas in a women’s soul, especially if these are wounded spaces, that are only comfortable coming out in the company of the earth, and/or in the company of other women.  There is a kind of empathy in both places that may not exist for women in the company of men, or in the domesticated environments in which we live.  We understand  that centuries of alienation between women, and alienation between women and the earth, are both sources of and reflections of a woman’s alienation to her Self and that the healing of these alienations can only take place within the context of relationship.

Beyond such gazing, there is an embodiment, an integration, of spiritual reflections that occurs in engaged experiences in nature. As yoga binds body and spirit, so do contemplative experiences with and in the Earth.  And so, our intent is to encourage embodied prayer in nature by incorporating activities, both in solitude and community, in which women can experience a sense of communion --- again within themselves, with the Earth, with each other, and with the One they call God.

Following the Earth

As Oasis, our days will be bathed in prayer, whether in stillness or motion, alone or community, inside or out. As always, our hope will be to invite women to discover and recover their own authentic way of seeing and being, touching and knowing,  the Presence of the Sacred  on earth.

While each gathering will always include elements for nurture of the four key relationships, our gathering times, in following the natural rhythms of the earth, will also focus on specific qualities drawn from the seasons. Each compass point in the earth’s wheel will orient us to similar places within our own lives.  Following the earth’s full cycle through the year will allow for exploration of both wholeness and tension,  light and shadow, abundance and sparseness, mystery and presence, spirit and soul. 

Leadership

Vicki Kensinger is a spiritual companion and lover of beauty, residing in Palmyra, PA, where she nurtures her garden, her creativity, and her spiritual direction practice, Sacred Listening. She has completed Oasis’ Spiritual Direction for Spiritual Guides two-year program, and the Deepening Year for Direction Ministries. She blogs at www.emmaatlast.wordpress.com

Gathering Dates and Themes

We will be gathering on the solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarter days . 

Potential themes are as follows:

February 1-3, 2012   
thresholds and footprints, beginnings and endings, sparseness, living the tension between stillness and longing, silence and voice

March 19-20, 2012
conceptions and resurrections, unions and re-unions,  stirrings of life and bringing to light, greening power

May 3-4, 2012
rooting and opening, blossom, becoming and beauty,  body, movement and sexuality, passion,  loving

 June 20-22, 2012
 transformation and growing edges, ebb and flow, mystery and time, balance, power, joy, heat 

September 19-21, 2012
ripeness and wisdom, food and nurture, fullness and emptiness,  harvest and abundance, revelation and surprise

November1-2, 2012
letting go, forgiveness and trust, death and humus, Spirit, mothers and daughters

December 20-21, 2012
blessing and annunciation, co-creation, incarnation, birthing and croning,  darkness and light, mystery

Location

Most gatherings are being coordinated for  Camp Blue Diamond,  Petersburg, PA.

Meals will be provided by  the participants, either communally or individually.

download a 2012 NWSE brochure

If you have additional questions, please be in touch with Vicki at sacredlistening@comcast.net

I am interested in receiving information about Nurturing Women in the Sanctuary of Earth (NWSE)!
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