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In Quarantine or on a Retreat?

Do you have any idea how much money you have saved by going on retreat in your own home? You are going to be asked to stay home, so, why not turn part of your time into a spiritual retreat? You can create for yourself a private retreat replete with spiritual guidance, spiritual practice, journaling, creativity and reading. And add to it, you get to choose your own food. Do you want to fast on this retreat? Drink juice and tea only? Have a vegetarian retreat? Stop for a moment. With the Coronavirus pandemic unfolding and the outside world closing down around you; YOU are at the perfect place to give yourself permission to retreat and reflect. How do you plan your own retreat? Well, what are you interested in? Are you interested in spiritual practices? Give yourself a day, two, or three of no electronics and silence. Allow your nervous system to have a break from being bombarded and nurture yourself. Follow your curiosity and allow it to...

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The Prayer Field

In my last blog post I shared a bit about my journey into the Deep Silence of My Soul. I always thought I’d write a book about it, but knew I needed to be marinated more before I was ready to share my experience and maybe the experience was mine to hold without sharing. Yet out of the seeming nowhere, I am now compelled to speak of my experience with some level of objectivity and reverence. During my three year sabbatical I experienced many different dimensions which were revealed to and through me. One such dimension I refer to as the feeling tone of suicide or oblivion. For a good week I wasn’t alive energetically. This was not a psychological experience, this was not an emotional experience. This was a full body, in a field experience. I could not see or experience any form of life within me or around me. For all intent purposes I was dead. Gone were my emotions. Gone was my thinking. Gone was my...

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Letting Yourself Go

There is a Country Western song by George Strait that I have on my iPhone as I get a kick out of it every time I hear it. It’s called “She let herself go.” Chances are you’ve heard it. YouTube shows close to 4 million viewings. The lyrics begin with Strait singing about breaking up with his wife: “He wondered how she’d take it when he said goodbye Thought she might do some cryin’ lose some sleep at night But he had no idea, when he hit the road That without him in her life, she’d let herself go…” Then, the song takes a turn to say that she let herself go … and as the listener you are thinking her life fell apart until the verse continues as a play on the words “letting go.” Instead of a response embedded in pain; the wife sees the shift as a form of freedom. With him gone, she was able to do all the things she wanted to do …...

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Renewal in the Woods

  “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden For the better part of a week I have been hanging out in the woods, hugging trees and drinking in freshly-released oxygen. Standing on a trail surrounded by moss-laden rocks and trees while three feet from the river, I intentionally stood still and invited...

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Retreating and Opportunity to Retreat with Reverend Bonnie

  The prefix “re” means to do over. I once gave a talk on the power of “re” as to me this linguistical delight carries within it the energy of a Divine Do-over. Re-member is to put back together. Re-joice is to enter into Joy once again. Re-generate is to enter once again into the field of generation. Re-treat then, is to treat yourself to YOU!! It is to take a break for your benefit. I will be leading a retreat; which is VERY RARE for me to do, just outside of Tucson Arizona Friday, May 22 through Monday, May 25th. And, the space is VERY LIMITED as our house sleeps fifteen of us. This combination added to the Sacred Native land upon which we will meet makes for the perfect collision of something magical. We have named the retreat O Great Spirit! The extended weekend will be spent in reverence honoring our selves, our ancestors, the land, and the Great Spirit within and through all of it. Let’s start by...

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