• Retreat runs from 1:00 PM Friday to 2:00 PM Monday
• Each person will have a private room
• Maximum of 12 participants 
• Simple, healthy, and delicious food will be provided
• Wise and witty colleagues will be present 
• The schedule will combine focused activities, lively facilitated and spontaneous discussions, individual reflection time, and unscheduled time
• Optional individual coaching sessions will be available    
• Cost: $525
• To register: send a deposit of $150 payable to Paddling the Rapids, 186 East Waldo Road, Belfast, ME 04915
• Questions?  Need more information?  Email us  

Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, req­uisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due. Which is precisely what makes idle­ness dangerous. All manner of things can grow out of that fallow soil. Not for nothing did our mothers grow suspicious when we had "too much time on our hands." They knew we might be up to something. And not for nothing did we whisper to each other, when we were up to something, "Quick, look busy." 

  

From Deb:

My Spirit is anticipating my annual September writing retreat. I am noticing that phrases and ideas are bubbling and my body is longing for the lizard-like existence of sitting on a wide porch railing in the late-summer sun listening to what has just been written - so fresh and astonishing that my heart breaks open again and again.  

Our retreat cottage sits on a New Hampshire hilltop surrounded by fragrant fields and the familiar outline of Mount Kearsarge. Each year two dear friends weave their magic so that a new group becomes a community for five days - cooking and eating together, gathering around the fire, listening to rain on the roof, laughing, crying, and going deep into the creative wellspring of our lives.

I come away more myself and also changed, the shift palpable.  Ah...I feel the ripples from this retreat throughout the coming year.  Consider having your own retreat experience this November.  Join us. 

From Carol:  

For six months now we have been writing to you about the value of stopping.  Some of you have emailed us your thoughts about taking a break, some of you have been motivated to listen to that longing and take time off, some of you have said "yes" to our November retreat, some of you have sent along links and resources that have supported your journey.  We appreciate knowing that these words have mattered, and in some small way have pointed to another way of sustaining your leadership.

I hope you will consider joining us in November to deepen that inner conversation.  These six months of sabbatical have been priceless for me.

It is this significant break - this sabbatical - that has given me a new perspective - a new view of my world.  Each day I become more grateful.  Take the time.  You deserve you.  What is on your list that you have waited too long to experience?  Want to talk about how to make doing nothing happen?  Contact me.

 

Considering a Sabbatical? Is it time for a real break? Questions?  Send us an e-mail