Hope in the Dark: A Winter Circle of Trust® Retreat

If you are seeking funds or alternate payment options to participate in this program, please wait to register and first complete our Financial Assistance Application. 

Join us for a 3-day retreat exploring the generative power of darkness and what winter has to teach us. The waning light and long nights of winter take us deep into the dark. And though we sometimes associate darkness with confusion, fear, or suffering, the dark is also where new life begins and takes root. Like seeds germinating underground in the winter soil, or human life taking shape in the protective dark of the womb, things are growing in the dark that we cannot see.

As we move through these times of social, environmental, and political turmoil and witness so much human suffering, we need this kind of wisdom. Through individual reflection in a supportive circle, we will work with poetry, music, journaling, silence, nature, and more to consider questions such as:

• What sparks of new life are taking shape in the deepest places of my own soul?
• What beginnings might be unfurling, that I cannot yet see?
• What does the bareness of winter reveal more clearly?

This retreat draws on the principles and practices of the Courage & Renewal® approach, which was developed by Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal, and is informed by centuries of wisdom traditions from around the world. It is intended for all of us who feel deeply about the state of the world and are curious about how to bring our unique gifts to the work of helping care for ourselves and our communities. We extend a particular and explicit welcome to BIPOC folks, queer folks, and other people navigating the world with marginalized identities.

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Leader(s)

Veta Goler, PhD, is a black, queer, retired Spelman College professor and longtime meditator, a Courage & Renewal® facilitator and board member, and a Purpose Guide™. She is committed to offering contemplative retreats and workshops that help people connect with their inner world to increase their self-love, and to help people identify their deep calling so they can offer their gifts to the world more fully.

Mariam I. Habib holds courageous, generative space for growth and transformation. She is a therapist, facilitator, and educator rooted in the liberatory power of love, empathy, and human dignity. As a queer bicultural person, Mariam is well-versed in helping people navigate the complexity of identity, belonging, purpose, and path. She holds a particular commitment to trauma survivors, queer folks, immigrants, and people of color, and strives to help all her clients develop an authentic and joyful sense of self. Using relational, contemplative, and somatic practices, she helps people move through difficulty and return to our inherent wholeness. She brings an intersectional and anti-oppressionist perspective to all her work.