Between Beauty and Grief

an online retreat for the darkening of the year.

November 28- December 21, 2025

Day after Thanksgiving- Winter Solstice

Life is glorious.  Life is hard.  How do we hold space to encounter all of Life, no matter what comes our way?

This retreat-in-daily-life will bring us through the darkening of the year as we get quiet (and busy).

Now is the time to stay open

I don't know about you, but this year has been a challenge.  I have been heartbroken again and again.  When I bump into grief, rage, worry and despair, I have been struggling to know how to meet or metabolize them.  Likewise, some things in my life this year have been incredibly beautiful, joyful, enlivening and wonderous, but that seems even more complicated to meet or metabolize.  I have been wondering with many people, how can I celebrate when things are so hard out there?  Is that even ok? Is there a way to make what's hard stop?  What can I do to solve this?  Maybe when that's done, I can figure out joy.

The truth is, I don't think cutting off from beauty or joy will help sustain any of us in hard times.  I don't think it makes us more compassionate to hold on to pain, pay attention to pain, avoid pain, or try to fix the pain.  Nor does it really work to ignore what hurts. So what to do?

There is a space between pain and joy that can hold them both.  There is a way of being that opens to beauty and to grief as they arise and uses both as fuel for Love to move.  If you have been struggling with heartbreak and sorrow, this retreat is for you.  If you have been holding back from joy and beauty out of unease or guilt, this retreat is for you.  Together we will find the space where life can meet itself, where we can include all aspects of life, and where our action flows from love to love making more along the way.

Format and Investment.

Unlike a retreat where you go away from life for a period of time, a retreat-in-daily-life is a contemplative practice of deepening our engagement around a theme.  As its name suggests, we will be engaging in opening space for our awareness to deeply drink in love in the forms of beauty and grief. You will have access to a daily post with a suggestion for your reflection for that day.  Each morning there will be an optional gathering to practice together (sample practice) as we start the day (7am Central), and we will gather weekly on Sunday evening (8pm Central) for community conversation to take note of what is happening inside our noticing.  Gatherings will be held on zoom.

You can do this retreat on your own by simply engaging the daily posts.  You are warmly invited to join daily practice in the morning (link to a recording of the practice) on days you can as a lovely extra.  It will also be a wonderful opportunity if you join us for Sunday night community conversations to help solidify some of what you are experiencing as you engage.

The investment for this 3 week retreat is $149.  Click the join now button to register.  Upon registration, you will receive an email with details and meeting links.

I look forward to joining you in the open space where we can make contact with the fullness of Life.

Our three weeks

After a 3 day intro into the nature of the Universe, we will dive right in.

Week 1

We explore Beauty's place in the Universe and its many faces.  Where do we encounter beauty and joy?  How do we process this  experience. Where does beauty belong in a world that often feels so hard?

Week 2

We will explore Grief's place in the Universe and its many faces.  Where are we encountering grief and challenge?  Can we encounter what's difficult without losing ourselves inside it? What gifts does it hold?

Week 3

We will spend this week in dialogue between Beauty and Grief moving from the center of Life which is love to see how things are connected, included, evolving and present.

We end on Winter Solstice, the hinge between the Light and the Dark, the turning point of the year.