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January 2007
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Dear Retreat Enthusiast,
If you love joining in on a yoga retreat, learning a
new meditation technique, maybe camping with
fellow women or men, RetreatFinder.com lists retreats
that will peek your interest. Retreat Events are being
added to our site every week. Search Our Event Listings
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If You Dream of Starting a Retreat Center...
January 12-14, 2007 at The Leaven Center in Lyons, Michigan
You are invited to join a group of people from
different communities who have one thing in common:
a passionate and persistent desire to start their
own center. We will gather to share our dreams,
discuss what it really takes to launch such a new
venture, and work in teams developing goals and
timelines. The workshop leaders, Melanie Morrison
and April Allison, will share their experiences of
developing The Leaven Center.
Whether you dream of opening a place in the country,
creating an urban center, or starting a center for
popular education, we encourage you to bring a team
of people who share your dream. There will be time
during the weekend to work in teams, as well as the
whole group, developing a business plan, creating a
mission statement, and exploring the following
questions:
- Do you want to start a non-profit or for-profit
organization?
- Who do you hope to serve?
- What are the possible funding sources?
- What is the socio-political context for your
center?
- What will be your center's mission?
Leaders: April Allison and Melanie Morrison
Time: Friday, 7 pm - Sunday 1 pm
Cost: $185
April Allison offers spiritual direction through The
Leaven Center, and is Director of Operations for
Leaven. She and Melanie moved to Lyons in 1995 to
develop The Leaven Center. She delights in the wide
variety of skills and experience that are called
forth in retreat center work . . . and is acutely
aware that there are endless "activity options" on
any given day.
Melanie Morrison is Director of Leaven, an
anti-oppression educator, and one of the founders of
The Leaven Center. During the past ten years, she
has given herself heart and soul to developing a
center that nurtures the relationship between
spirituality and social justice.
The Leaven Center in Lyons, Michigan is midway
between Lansing and Grand Rapids. The main floor of
the Lodge and Guest House are barrier-free. The
center is located on 40 beautiful acres of land and
the meeting room in the Lodge faces the Grand River.
You may register online with a credit card or
download a registration form at our website. For
more information about The Leaven Center or to
inquire about partial scholarships, call
989-855-2606 or email leavencenter@leaven.org.
Visit The Leaven Center
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Most Inspiring Person of 2006
This year’s 12 most inspiring people once again
proved the power of individuals to act with love,
courage, and forgiveness in the most challenging
situations. We asked you to choose between some
tremendously inspiring folks, and we were in for
some surprises. Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, who
spoke against racism and anti-Semitism, and "green"
evangelical Rev. Richard Cizik, who works to save
the environment, were knocked off in the first round.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was that a homeless
Detroit man, Charles Moore, who returned $21,000 in
savings bonds he found in the trash to their
rightful owner, defeated billionaire philanthropist
Warren Buffett, who this year gave the biggest
charitable donation in history. Some of you wrote
that Moore’s story reminded you of the New Testament
lesson of “the widow’s mite.” Moore gave everything
he had, because of his deeply grounded sense of
honesty and integrity, shattering stereotypes about
homeless people in the process.
Some other truly remarkable people lost by a slim
margin. Elissa Montanti, the “saint of Staten
Island,” who with single-minded devotion cuts red
tape to get prosthetic limbs and medical help for
war-maimed children, lost narrowly to Todd Corbin, a
marine who courageously saved the lives of his unit
in Iraq. One remarkable teenager—Adam Zuckerman, who
is already one of the country’s most outspoken
activists for Darfur—was edged out by another teen,
Jason McElwain, an autistic boy whose amazing
final-quarter shots for his high school basketball
team proved that disability is no impediment to
achieving your dreams. Another inspiring child,
Bindi Irwin, daughter of “Crocodile Hunter” Steve
Irwin who has taken up her father’s mantle of
wildlife preservation, was chosen over
wheelchair-bound actress, Kathleen Traylor, who
started a theater where the disabled showcase their
formidable acting talents.
Read more on Beliefnet.com
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Journey to Your Authentic Self
Island of Molokai, HI
Combines the excitement of travel with the
satisfaction of inner discovery and true
self-expression! Practice speaking from the heart,
connecting authentically, and expressing yourself
with confidence! The retreat includes daily speaking
circles, creative ars activities and games, ancient
Hawaiian Huna Wisdom and ample time for relaxation,
reflection and rejuvenation.
More details
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Portals to the Self: A Women's Circle by the Sea
Isla Mujeres, Mexico
Women gather together to form a circle, to weave
together our stories, to become midwives of our
dreams and visions! The beautiful island, Isla
Mujeres, encircled by the turquoise Caribbean Sea,
will conspire with us, breathe with us as we embody
our truths, move in us as we find our dance, speak
with us as we share our stories.
More details
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Spirit Mountain Retreat
Idyllwild, CA
We offer a quiet place for reflection, for attuning
to one's inner spirit, for prayer, meditation and
spiritual guidance. At Spirit Mountain Retreat, we
believe that life is a Sacred Journey and that we
are called to:
Live from a larger Story,
Grow in consciousnes,
Awaken to an expanding Universe,
Celebrate the Divine Presence in all
life. Our small community is nestled in the magestic
San Jacinto Mountains within the San Bernardino
National Forest.
More details
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Highland Guest Ranch
Philo, CA
A beautiful and secluded rural setting, activities
to suit a variety of interests, comfortable, private
well-appointed cabin accommodations and delicious,
wholesome meals with fine local wines make for a
retreat experience fit for both corporate clients
and workshop facillitators. Highland Ranch allows
you to get work accomplished and also enjoy the
redwoods.
More Details
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Saint Joseph Institute
Port Matilda, PA
Pennsylvania’s newest resort and spa The
mountainside location provides a restful setting.
Recreation facilities (tennis, basketball,
volleyball, and shuffleboard), walking trails, game
room and the beautiful spa provide a variety of
enjoyable activities.
More Details
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Shambhala Mountain Center
Red Feather Lakes, CO
A mountain valley retreat located on 600 acres in
northern Colorado. Since 1971 the Center has offered
hundreds of programs on Buddhist meditation, yoga
and other contemplative disciplines. Tamed by more
than thirty years of use as a contemplative retreat,
Shambhala Mountain Center is a place where one of
the basic truths of Buddhism—that people can be
profoundly open to the wisdom of the present
moment—is always readily available.
More Details
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BOOK REVIEW |
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Seeking the Sacred Raven: Politics and Extinction on
a Hawaiian Island by Mark Jerome Walters
Island Press, Washington DC, 2006. $24.95
“When a Hawaiian dies, the soul travels to a
Leaping Place and awaits its guide--one of those
spirits is the ‘alala.” Also known as the Hawaiian
crow, this sacred bird more closely resembles a
raven, and as of 1996 only a dozen lived in the
wild. Unlike the raucous crows of the mainland,
‘alala are curious and highly intelligent. They
enjoy observing the activity of biologists and
delight in sneaking up on researchers then cawing
loudly, all as a sort of game. Escorting you back to
the time when lush diverse forests of rich fragrance
covered the islands, when spirituality, knowledge
and law combined to form a conservation strategy
that maintained productive crops for thousands of
years before European settlement, Mark Jerome
Walters introduces you to the original habitat in
which the ‘alala thrived. With the visit of Captain
Hook and the immigration of all of those who
followed, the ancient celebration of feasting turned
into fasting and the hula dance was banned.
Domesticated animals consumed the under story of the
forests and the habitat of the ‘alala forever
changed. Fighting with the ferocious passion of
parents in a custody battle in which each parent
believes that they alone know how best to protect
and raise the child, Walters chronicles in heart
wrenching, soap-opera like detail, the conflicts and
challenges between the biologists, state and federal
government, private land owners all trying to
preserve the species. But it is not just the lives
of a few birds at stake, but rather the spiritual
fate of thousands of Hawaiian families.
Reveiwed by Alec Franklor
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RetreatFinder.com
phone:
1-800-889-6906
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