See you soon!

Address: Hope Springs Institute 4988 Mineral Springs Road, Peebles, Ohio 45660

Arrival: Thursday, May 1st between 2pm - 3:30pm - giving you time to settle and ground before our first gathering at 5:15pm.

Departure: Sunday, May 4th after lunch (we’re planning for a brunch late morning and a grab and go lunch at 2pm so you can get on the road)

Contact Gwen: 216-337-3026 (iMessage or Whatsapp) or email

Please note: Hope Springs does not have cell service. WiFi allows the use of messaging apps and wifi calling (facetime, imessage, whatsapp, etc) and a landline is available for your use. The Hope Springs telephone number is: 937-587-2602. You may share this number with anyone who may need to get ahold of you and messages will be checked daily.

Preparations:

Upon Arrival:

Welcome or Welcome Back! After winding your way through the rolling hills along Mineral Springs Road you’ll find Hope Springs, marked on the road by a sign. When you arrive you can pull down the driveway, past the pond, and park by the dining hall across from the office. Someone will be there to check you in and direct you toward your room! Afterwards you’ll move your car to the guest parking lot. As you settle in you might explore, get a warm cup of tea or coffee from the dining hall, take a nap in your room or in a hammock, take a walk on the trails, read by the fireplace, or dip into the hot tub.

Respond in your own way to the question: what might support you in feeling grounded and nourished in that moment?

On “Sometimes Silence”:

We’ll ease in with some orientations over dinner and take it moment by moment, deepening our presence and the pathway to (sometimes) silence.

Please be considerate of individual processes at work and the quiet that may already begin seeping in for some of us - we all arrive from different places with different needs. You may practice leading with a question like: “Do you feel like talking?” Or you can claim your space by saying something like, "I feel like I need some quiet, maybe we can connect later”.

Expanses of time without pretense or small talk offers us a shift from the habitual: the ways we communicate and find belonging. This sort of structure is profoundly permissive, and allows for our time to be a healing bridge between the personal experience and the communal one.

Having the space and the choice about what kind of connection we need will help us reduce chatter, soothing the edges of big feelings: being too much or not enough. Our penchant for filling all the emptiness (what happens if we hold it open?). As a collective, we will move through the unfamiliarity of quiet, and practice being deliberate with how we engage with ourselves and each other. Discover what connections are formed in that quietude.

Schedule:

During our retreat there are the anchors of meals and gatherings. These invitations for togetherness are woven with free time. You’ll receive a schedule, subject to whim and weather of course. The schedule will share our intentions for times of quiet and conversation.

You are welcome to participate, or not participate, according to your needs.

And a little aftercare note - Reintegration can be a thing. Consider now a few ways you might take good care of future you as you settle back in at home after retreat. Some extra quiet time? A gentle yoga class? Plans for a bath or a day off from work or some takeout for dinner? Letting those you live with know to be a little gentle with you? Just some ideas.

With Care and sparks of anticipation,

Gwendolyn