Retreat Schedule - 2023
Thursday Oct 5
6:30 - 9:00 pm - opening meeting
 
Friday, Oct 6
9:00 -10:00 am - early-morning offering.
Optional
Your Retreat Invocation
Jeffrey and Cielle Backstrom
Indigenous cultures practiced models of healing and transformation. Though much of this Knowledge is gone, in a few areas, the indigenous wisdom has survived.
Using forms we've learned from the native teachers in the Andes and the Amazon basin, we will call forth the living forces of nature to help you begin a new phase of clearing, healing and moving forward into the person you are becoming. We ask that before coming, you spend some time deeply feeling your intention for this retreat.
10:30 am -12:30 pm - Large Group Themed Sitting. Gazing followed by presentation and discussion.
We expect all participants to attend these late morning meetings
Fax and Sharon Gilbert
Distilling the Essence of Love
A look at how the different facets and frequencies of love show up for us. We’ll consider together the flavors of love in our impersonal, personal, interpersonal, and non-human relationships.
“Non-human” refers to our relationships with animals, nature, and higher vibrational places and expressions.
12:30 - 2:30 pm - lunch break
"lunchroom" between 12:45 and 1:45 pm
optional
Feel free to bring your "to-go" lunch to our lunchroom to eat with other participants.
2:30-5:00 pm - small groups
4-6 participants meet with teachers/mentors for personal share time.
We expect all participants to attend the small groups.
5:15-6:00 pm - nectar time
optional
Rest is an important way to integrate shifts and openings during the retreat. Before dinner, you may rest on your own or join others for a time of nectar. During nectar, we put aside conversation and listen to gentle music, a gentle guided meditation or somatic unwinding.
Facilitated by Denise
Somatic Unwinding
Come nestle into the embrace of your own body as we support and hold you. Somatic Unwinding only requires being present and listening without an agenda, both as a receiver and giver. Our bodies tell us what is needed.
7:15-8:30 pm - optional evening gathering
Denise Gallagher
Beauty, Love and Embodied Consciousness.
Denise has been leading guided meditations over the last couple years that honor and nurture Presence in the three areas of intelligence; head, heart, and belly. In this evening, she plans to continue in this vein but to also include an exploration of the role of love and beauty in embodied consciousness. This love can be personal or Divine, fed by allies both alive or passed, human, celestial or animal. By Beauty, she is referring to its expressions in all forms, both natural and human-made. This evening is primarily experiential in nature. You may end up falling in love with yourself and all of life.
Saturday, Oct 7
9:00 -10:00 am - early-morning offering
optional
Writing to Realize
Sharon Gilbert
Free-writing is a playful way to see what comes into awareness--an image or idea of any of the facets of our nature might show up. Whatever arises is welcomed with acceptance. During our hour together, two simple free-writing explorations will call up imagery and language at the edge of awareness that may reveal a deeper knowing.
10:30 am -12:30 pm - Large Group Themed Sitting.
Gazing followed by presentation and discussion.
We expect all participants to attend these late morning meetings.
Sandra Glickman
Subtleties of Perception
Sandra writes, “I have been feeling that our ‘whole being’ perception, as it is articulated and sometimes lived, seems to omit acknowledgment of specific moments or events of subtle and powerful perceptions which have carried me beyond the usual. This evening is to share and give words—if words or symbols can be found—for these perceptions. Ordered conversations."
12:30 - 2:30 pm - lunch break
Saturday, Oct 7, The retreat teachers will be meeting together in the lunchroom, so participants can eat lunch at a local restaurant or buy a “picnic” meal to eat outdoors.
2:30-5:00 pm - small groups
4-6 participants meet with teachers/mentors for personal share time.
We expect all participants to attend the small groups.
5:15-6:00 pm - nectar time
optional
Facilitated by Cielle
Soundscape nectar
Cielle will start with a guided, grounding exercise and inner awareness tune-up to assist you in deeply listening to inner prompts while being with the melodic sounds of chimes, bells, and more. A sonic healing "sound bath"
6:15-7:15 pm - dinner break, on your own
7:15 - 8:30 pm - Creative Expression Night
optional
Fax will MC
Please bring a sample of your talent to share with the group (or be part of the audience). This could be from the traditional arts such as poetry, music, drama, or -- surprise us.
Look for sign-up sheets so Fax will be able to plan this gathering.
Sunday, Oct 8
9:00 -10:00 am - early-morning offering.
optional
Consciousness Clarification
Fax Gilbert
A simple, guided self-inquiry toward deepening in the recognition of yourself as consciousness. A powerful way to bring forward the Being that registers and embodies everything else we are. Followed by discussion.
10:30 am -12:30 pm - Large Group Themed Sitting.
Gazing followed by presentation and discussion.
We expect all participants to attend these late morning meetings.
Jeffrey Backstrom and Denise Gallagher
Your Soul's Journey
Where am I now, along my soul’s journey? Given what has gone before, what is arising?
Our lives can seem filled with everyday tasks and the myriad events that befall us.
But what is it adding up to? What am I learning? What do I want to be learning? What is nurturing … or impeding? Have I really taken the path that leads to fulfillment, to the unique being that I am?
Sometimes images can give us more than words. Using imagery as a tool of discovery, we’ll roll up our sleeves and take a serious look at the soul’s journey.
12:30 - 2:30 pm - lunch break
hosted "lunchroom" between 12:45 and 1:45 pm
Feel free to bring your "to-go" lunch to our lunchroom in order to eat with other participants.
2:30-5:00 pm - small groups
5:15-6:00 pm - nectar time
optional
Facilitated by Jeffrey
Gentle music
“Nectar” is the sweet, tantalizing blossom scent that pulls one toward its source. And “nectar” in the Trillium context Is a soft, gentle period, an opportunity to perhaps feel, perhaps integrate more deeply, what has come to your attention during the day. Comfy surroundings and restful music help to create the space.
6:15 - 7:30 pm - group dinner, El Paso Tex Mex, 53 E Broadway Ave
optional
Gather to eat with retreat friends. A sign-up sheet will be available so we can reserve a table. "Dutch treat"
7:45 - 9:00 pm social gathering.
optional
Denise will lead us in some casual exchanges to help us connect. Relax with your retreat friends. There will be an option to dance for those inclined.
Monday, Oct 9, 2023
10:00 -11:30 am - small groups
4-6 participants meet with teachers/mentors for personal share time.
We expect all participants to attend the small groups.
11:45 am - 1:15 pm - closing meeting
7:00 - 8: 30 pm - evening sitting
optional
Join Cielle for the evening – a cozy, laid-back time to debrief, digest and integrate.