First Friday! May Day May Day! (+ new sliding scale and schedule for spring retreat online)

First Friday is TOMORROW! It’s May Day!

Traditionally in many countries through Europe, May Day is the fire festival, the bursting forth of spring.

My mom used to dance around the May Pole every year on May Day with her college. She still does, actually.

We’re half way between spring and summer, and life is flowing and expressing all around.

May Day is certainly a fine day to inquire into stressful thoughts, because I think of inquiry as a kind of fire….burning up old stories.

In a May Day kind of way, this burning would happen with ease, celebration, fires out in the fields.

Not necessarily roaring wild fires striking terror into the inquirer, but much gentler.

All we’re doing is answering four questions and exploring a stressful story, one by one.

If you’d like to come stand by the fire and warm yourself, then you are entirely welcome.

This is a free monthly event.

You can attend by listening only, camera on or off, microphone on or off OR if you’re ready….doing The Work in the hot seat (after all, it is a gentle glowing fire).

Join me on zoom at 7:45am Pacific Time.

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 988 954 937

Phone:

+1-253-215-8782 (Tacoma)

+1-408-638-0968 (San Jose)

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Speaking of joining together in Inquiry, I’m getting more and more excited about May retreat online, and there are a few changes (don’t worry–for those of you already registered, what I’m changing does not affect you).

Change? What?! How can that be? (Gasp).

We’re all getting quite used to changes these days, or perhaps by now, we’re getting used to lack of changes.

LOL.

Here’s what we’re going to try now for May Retreat, based on requests and meditating on what feels most helpful for all.

(The plan is super fun combination of inquiry, connection with others and movement/silence. I’d do it even if I was the only one attending).

May Retreat goes like this:

If you can’t attend it all, you are welcome to come to either Thursday only, or Thursday and Friday together.

And there’s MORE to Spring Retreat than our zoom sessions together!

Here’s how the time will flow:

We’ll meet for our 3.5 hour session each day (with a natural 15-20 minute stretch break in the middle) on zoom.

After our immersion for a half-day, depending on your time zone, you’ll have space for a nourishing meal, a rest, or a cup of tea before bed.

After our group session together, you’ll be invited to do an exercise called The Morning Walk which is a daily practice at The School for The Work.

I’ll send you the exercise, and you’ll listen and do your walk any time between our sessions. You pick when it’s right for you to complete the exercise.

It might be sometime within a few hours after we’ve met as a group, or the next morning on the following day for you. Your walk can be 20 minutes or 90, you choose.

Morning Walk is a beautiful, powerful exercise. It’s walking meditation and allows us to notice what’s present.

Everyone participating in the whole retreat will get paired with a partner (optional) to facilitate each other in the process in between sessions.

Even if you’re brand new, this is one of the best ways to dive deeper into your work, connecting with another person. (I’ll be sure to share with newcomers how to walk through the process).

You’ll make arrangements to meet your partner any time before our next session, whether afternoon, evening or morning hours in your time zone (care will be taken to pair people in the same time zones). You’ll meet for 90 minutes.

We’ll follow this schedule for Thursday and Friday; joining together on zoom, doing The Work, doing our morning walks on our own, pairing with another person, eating good meals, and noticing.

Saturday, May 16th, there will be no formal group session.

Instead, I’ll have office hours for anyone at all from 8am-9am Pacific Time/ 11am-Noon ET/ 4-5 pm UK.

Come ask about your work and any help you need in the process.

And here’s an unexpected surprise for anyone–not just those attending retreat–that won’t appeal to some of you, but to others, what a treat:

Saturday 10:15am-Noon Pacific Time everyone is invited to do moving meditation/dance on zoom online–yes, I know it sounds weird to go to a dance online (it is to be honest), but I’ve been doing this already with my husband Jon every week since the corona-covid thing and 35-65 people have joined us each week from all over the world.

We call it FreeForm Dance Dance and it was originally inspired by the freedom of dancing at the School for The Work, which reminded me of dancing in my living room with my sisters growing up.

I had almost forgotten how fun that was. So we made a dance for the experience of joyous spontaneous movement.

We make a special very eclectic set list with all kinds of music and the dance is on and always different. Dance in your own living room. Dance your living turnarounds!

(Dance dance is open to anyone, not just retreat participants. You can always find out more here.)

So for Spring Retreat, let’s do The Work and get some inner spring deep cleaning underway.

Come to the first, the first-and-second, or attend all three days. If you can only attend one, it needs to be Thursday so we all start together and form a private circle. If you come to two, then you’ll attend Thursday and Friday only.

This way those who need to drop off from attending the whole event can drop away, but we won’t have new arrivals who need to catch up or feel confused about where we are.

I’ll be inviting those who sign up to clear your calendars of multiple other tasks, to allow yourself to take a break from the to-do list, and to use this time to care for your own soul in this work.

If you’re like me, it’s oddly difficult to sit still and be when the world is noisy and full of information, viruses, family time, and the never-ending self-improvement or home-improvement projects.

Much love,

Grace