Winter/Spring Retreats 2008
Wisdom Circles
Wisdom Circles provide an opportunity to explore topics in depth, being mindful of how each topic forms and informs our spiritual practice and our daily life, and looking within each topic for what the Wisdom traditions have to teach us. All Wisdom Circles meet in the Studio at Healing Ground unless otherwise noted.
Wisdom Circle on “The Great Work” and “The Great Turning”
Joanna Macy and David Korten call this intersection of human evolution and the history of the planet “The Great Turning” — the time when humanity woke up and shifted from empire building to creating a sustainable earth community. Thomas Berry calls the insight and work that is needed to achieve this shift “The Great Work.” He provides convincing information about why we face a historical challenge not just for survival, but also for meaning. He explains the urgency, documents the way forward, and challenges us to play our role in what must become the legacy of this time in human history if we are to continue as a species. Be part of a larger community that explores how we can create a sustainable future that honors the dignity and worth of all life.
Led by: Pat Bailey and Dee Irwin, Co-Directors of Healing Ground and pilgrims on the journey
Wednesdays from 6:30 – 8:30 pm, January 9 – February 13
Suggested donation: $30-50, limited to 15 participants
Wisdom Circle: Enneagram and Essence
The ancient wisdom traditions all focused on ways in which we could rediscover the essential qualities of our soul — qualities that have become distorted by our personality in its quest for what Fr. Thomas Keating calls our “emotional programs for happiness.” This Wisdom Circle focuses on the essential qualities of the mind (the Holy Ideas) and heart (Virtues) and how they have become distorted through our experiences of pain and loss, hurt, shame and grief. By recalling the Holy Ideas and Virtues, we can bring the clarity of an open mind and the compassion of an awakened heart into greater presence in our daily lives. This class is for those who already have had an introduction to the Enneagram.
Co-sponsored by the Servant Leadership School of Greensboro
Led by: Dee Irwin, Enneagram teacher, retreat leader and faculty member of the Servant Leadership School of Greensboro
Mondays from 6:30 – 8:30 pm January 7 – March 10 at 213 West Fisher Avenue in Greensboro
Cost: $90. You may register online by clicking on the "Register Now" button which will link you to the Servant Leadership School of Greensboro website registration form or mail registration to
Servant Leadership School of Greensboro, 213 Fisher Avenue, Greensboro, NC 27401.
Wisdom Circle: Enneagram, Relationships and Levels of Development
The Levels of Development in the Enneagram are a measure of our degrees of freedom and awareness. Relationships are a bellwether of our own emotional and spiritual health. Taken together, they provide an in-depth look at how we either block or nourish higher consciousness in our relationships and communication with ourselves, each other, and the numinous.
Led by: Dee Irwin, Enneagram teacher and retreat leader
Every other Wednesday from 9:00 – 11:30 am, January 16 – May 7
Suggested donation: $100, limited to 15 participants
Wisdom Circle on Making Peace with Money
Come to a Wisdom Circle on the issue of money in our lives. We will examine our relationship with money and how our patterns of earning, spending and giving away money offer an intriguing insight into our minds, hearts and acts of service. We will work with cultural messages of scarcity and guilt around money and then look at what would happen in our lives if we shifted towards experiences of generosity and grace. Sharing in Circle and commitment to weekly spiritual practices will make the class engaging, intriguing and possibly life-changing!
Led by Ruth Anderson, Director of the Servant Leadership School of Greensboro and teacher of their core class Money: From Cultural Addiction to Spiritual Freedom
Wednesdays from 6:30 – 8:30 pm, April 2 – 23
Suggested Donation: $40, limited to 15 participants
A Quiet Day in the Quiet Garden
Healing Ground is part of the Quiet Garden movement, a ministry of hospitality that offers space for prayer, silence, reflection, and the appreciation of beauty, for learning more about spiritual tools for daily life, and for experiencing creativity and healing in the context of God’s love. Come for the day or come for an hour. Materials will be provided for creative expression, and meditation spaces abound both indoors and throughout the grounds. If you come for the day, join the opening circle at 10:00 am and the closing circle at 2:30 pm. Participants are invited to come and go for any portion of the day as needed.
First Friday of each month from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Bring a bag lunch; beverages and snacks provided.
Suggested donation: Love Offering
St. Bridgid Up Close and Personal
Saint Bridgid, abbess of Kildare, is one of the most widely revered figures in Ireland. There, her feast day of February 1 is considered the first day of spring. Inspired by the stories of her generosity and compassion, participants will use polymer clay in a guided, step-by-step process to create their own image of Bridgid to take home. Polymer clay is a user-friendly medium for artists and non-artists alike. Those who came for Judy’s workshop on the figure of St. Francis were surprised and awed by the variety of wonderful expressions of St. Francis that emerged from the process. Come see how you commune with St. Bridgid.
Led by: Judy Gibson King, an artist who has been working in clay for 15 years.
Visit her website Joyful Spirits Designs to learn more about her work.
February 2, 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
Suggested donation: $65, includes lunch and materials. Limited to 10 participants
Place Me With Your Son:
An Ignatian Lenten Retreat
Please join us for a quiet day of contemplation and reflection in preparation for Holy Week and Easter. We will learn and practice gospel contemplation, an imaginative form of prayer used by St. Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises. The hallmark of Ignatian spirituality is “finding God in all things,” so we will offer a variety of creative ways in which gospel contemplation can be experienced, using all our senses.
As a collect in Holy Week expresses it: “Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace.”
Led by the Rev. Wendy Billingslea, Rector, St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Greensboro. Wendy spent 35 days in Wales on an Ignatian retreat last summer and has inspired us greatly with the deepening that she brought back from that experience. Come share in her glow!
March 8, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm
Suggested donation: $35 and bring a dish to share for lunch
Spirituality and Sexuality:
Breaking the Taboo of Women’s Silence
In midlife, many women find themselves wondering about both their sexuality and their spirituality. Both become means through which we understand ourselves better in relation to our partners, communities, and the systems that surround us. However, the myths that have guided our Western culture throughout history, allowing and offering women paths to spiritual enlightenment, have simultaneously denied the significance of sexuality on that path. This is a retreat for curious and brave women over forty.
Led by Ann May, whose research has focused on women and religion and on informal conversations about sexuality in women.
April 5, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Suggested donation: $50 and bring a dish to share for lunch that expresses the intersection between your spirituality and sexuality.
A day of Mindfulness and Remembrance … The Rose Ceremony
In most cultures and spiritual traditions, there is a time, usually in the Spring — the time of rebirth and renewal — set aside to honor the role of the Mother. We are, at this time, mindful of our own mothers, who bring us physically to life, of the Great Mother which is the Earth, and the Divine Mother as that energy manifests in the spiritual ancestresses from the various traditions — Rachel and Sarah, Mary, Kwan Yin, Sarasvati, and Kali, among others. On Saturday, May 3, we will gather in community to offer mindful gratitude and remembrance to our own Mother, our Mother the Earth, and the matriarchs of our own spiritual root tradition.
Guided by Diana Hawes and Bill Patterson, ordained lay practitioners, teaching in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh and supported by Pat Bailey and Dee Irwin, co-directors of Healing Ground
Saturday, May 3, 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
Suggested donation: $35-$60 and a vegetarian dish to share for lunch.
The Suggested Love Offerings are just that—suggestions. We welcome you at any retreat for any amount you may wish to give. Scholarships are always available and we welcome barters or work exchanges if you would like to trade your time and talent for a retreat offering or a personal retreat. If you are financially blessed, you may want to sponsor someone who is blessed in other ways.
Walking the Labyrinth at Healing Ground
This form of meditation or prayer walking has been helpful to people throughout the ages and continues to be an effective way to center oneself, restoring peace and calm.
Healing Ground has a beautiful outdoor labyrinth in the Quiet Garden which is always available for use. You can also bring the experience of walking the labyrinth to individuals or groups by taking advantage of Healing Ground’s portable 11-circuit canvas Chartres labyrinth (rental fee is $100).
Upcoming Pilgrimages
Healing Ground began offering Celtic Pilgrimages to the British Isles in 2004 as a way of better understanding our Celtic spiritual heritage and how it informs a more co-creative engagement with the cosmos and the world about us and within us. In 2007 we added a new focus, a “study pilgrimage” where the pilgrim path — leaving home in order to find home, that place deep within that is your sacred center — is combined with an intentional study of how to better incorporate some aspect of life-giving service in our daily lives. Our first study pilgrimage was an Eco-Pilgrimage to the Pacific Northwest. This year we are offering both opportunities:
- A Study Pilgrimage of Forgiveness and Reconciliation
to Northern Ireland May 24 through June 5
Click here for details about the study pilgrimage or print out the brochure in PDF format detailing the itinerary, cost and how to register. - A Celtic Pilgrimage to Wales and the Borderlands
July 31 through August 13
Click here for details about the pilgrimage to Wales and the Borderlands or print out the brochure in PDF format detailing the itinerary, cost and how to register. The cost of the trip has been reduced by $300 per person thanks to a generous donor who made this possible.
Looking Ahead
to the Mepkin Abbey Retreat 2008
It has become an advent tradition for Healing Ground to offer this retreat as a perfect way of stepping into the rhythm of a quiet and meditative preparation for this holy season. We have reserved eight rooms at Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. It is a Cistercian monastery that follows a Benedictine life of prayer, work, and study. An added feature to this Benedictine retreat is the opportunity to view the Crêche Festival that includes Nativity sets from around the world.
Check their website at: www.mepkinabbey.org
November 28–December 1
Suggested donation: $80 includes transportation to Mepkin Abbey. Participants leave a donation to Mepkin Abbey for their accommodations and meals at the monastery. Space is limited to 8 participants and usually fills quickly.
