Creating Spaciousness: A New Year’s Sabbath Retreat
Sabbatical is a practice honoring the rhythm of light and dark, work and rest, action and contemplation. Shared in many forms and cultures, it honors the necessary wisdom of dormancy. Certain plant species must lay dormant in winter to bear fruit in the spring. They withdraw and pull inward to find their way. Deprived of this necessary stillness, many species will die off.
A period of deep, abiding rest, where nutrition and fertility coalesce, is more than an emotional and psychological human convenience. It is a spiritual and biological requirement.
This is the sacred pause, the ein sof, the pregnant emptiness of God. It is to this place we invite you to join with us.
Listen in the fertile quiet, as the light begins its slow return to the world. Watch carefully for what is aching to be born in you. Can we can become so still and quiet, we can hear the story we were born to offer? Can we uncover those few precious qualities, unique to us alone, that pass through us with effortless delight?
We need one another to nourish and shape our unfolding, to be rigorously honest about what we can and cannot do – and to be astonishingly merciful with ourselves and others. We are invited to serve with joy and ease, living abundantly on the earth.
All our resurrection stories begin here, in the darkest turning of the wheel. Not in spring, when life is abundant and obvious, but here – in the sanctuary of dormant Sabbath time, far removed from the relentless demands of a world seduced by its own inflated magnificence.
In the beautiful, expansive fecundity of this place called Ghost Ranch, immersed in the historic beauty of 21,000 pristine acres and an impossibly blue sky, our contemplative circle will awaken, soothe and comfort the gentle perfection of the humble destiny to which we are each called by name.
Come, all who toil and are heavy laden. Here we will find our way, find our true nature – and above all, take our rest.
Instructor(s)
Kelly Wendorf was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her life has been an incarnation of the miraculous. She is mother and writer, advocate and entrepreneur, facilitator and full-statured woman. As founding editor and publisher of Kindred, an online natural living magazine and community, she worked for social change, sustainable business practices, and supported research and innovation in community learning. Using horses as co-facilitators, Kelly works with individuals, corporations, women in positions of power, and family businesses to discover how nature can reveal their innate wisdom, curiosity and strength. Kelly lives in Santa Fe with her husband, Wayne, and her two children. Kelly and Wayne are co-founders of The Institute of the Southwest. www.institutesw.com
Wayne Muller, co-founder of The Institute of the Southwest, is a therapist, minister, community advocate, consultant, public speaker and bestselling author of several books including A Life of Being, Having, and Doing Enough and Sabbath.
A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Wayne spent forty years working with people in distress. He seeks wholeness everywhere, in sorrow and joy, illness and loss, struggle and success.
Wayne consults with numerous corporations, educational institutions, healthcare and community organizations. He founded Bread for the Journey – a network of ordinary people committed to grassroots, neighborhood philanthropy. He was a Senior Scholar at the Fetzer Institute, Extended Faculty at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and has received several awards for his humanitarian work with those in need. He lives in Santa Fe with his wife Kelly and their variously present children. www.waynemuller.com
Three ways to register:
- Download printable registration form and mail to: Ghost Ranch Registrar, HC77 Box 11, Abiquiu, NM 87510. OR scan and email your completed form to: [email protected]
- Register by telephone at 877-804-4678, extension 4152 or 4155 — available Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. MST.
