Rule of Life Pop Up
Reviewing your Rule of Life is a great opportunity noticing during a sabbath pause. Join Lil Smith to review your rule of life. Bring your current rule of life and any other materials that may be helpful. You are welcome to use the supplies in The Artist Within.
If you are new to Rule of Life, you are welcome to begin one. Please arrive at 9:30 to get instruction.
Wednesday, July 9
10 am to 2 pm
The Artist With
Questions? Please reach out to Lil.
Writer's Gathering online
We all have a story to share. As writers of stories, it is good to join with others to share our journeys, thoughts, ideas, struggles, and “aha"s. Writers often compose in solitude but get energy, inspiration, and insight when we meet in community with other writers. In this online gathering we discuss what we are writing, why we are writing, where our hopes and struggles are, and who we are when we write. No experience is necessary to join in the fun. Writers’ Gathering is for all writers in all genres - beginner, novice, experienced.
This gathering is a sacred space of giving and receiving. Facilitated by Gretchen Martens
Interspiritual Meditation
Jackie Linden Schade, pastor, spiritual director and trained ISM facilitator joins Fran Shelton, author, pastor and spiritual director, as they bring InterSpiritual Meditation back to Retreat House this fall. ISM brings ancient teachings to modern day, allowing individuals space for personal practice.
We will gather in person at Retreat House, 2nd Sunday of each month, 5-7 p.m.
Open to all. Questions or RSVP here.
Gratefulness Gatherings
Join others as we explore the transformative possibilities of grateful living, and discover greater meaning, purpose, and joy in our lives. Grateful Gatherings will take place every month at Retreat House. We will gather every third Tuesday from 10:30 to noon.
Informed by spiritual wisdom, scholarship, and scientific research, the Gatherings provide community connection, invigorating reflection and conversation, and practical tools for living a meaningful and flourishing life.
Living gratefully helps you navigate the joys and difficulties that accompany life. This is not an exercise in avoiding the hard stuff you experience by pretending things are okay when they are not. Instead, living gratefully is being fully present to your life so that your perspective can be expanded, your compassion enhanced, and your purpose discovered in this moment. This is what makes every day more meaningful.
The Gatherings will be hosted by Richard Mickelson, a trained facilitator. We will utilize robust materials provided by the Grateful Living organization (grateful.org). The gathering is open to anyone seeking inspiration, resources, and fellowship for living life with purpose and joy.
The Grateful Living organization supports daily life during challenging and joyful times with programs, resources, and skills for being more fully alive. They have a revolutionary spirit like their founder, the internationally beloved “Grandfather of Gratitude,” Br. David Steindl-Rast. They are a global nonprofit organization that empowers people to live meaningful lives through the transformative practice of grateful living.
Contact Richard at 123ramick@gmail.com; or contact inquiry@retreathousecommunity.org
Consider making a donation to Retreat House to help us tend spaces for little to no cost.
Soulful Art Presents: Zentangle with Tonya Minton
Come join us for an exciting day of learning a new style of meditative art, Zentangle. Tonya has been teaching Zentangle for years and she will be offering Soulful Art this month from 10:00 a.m. - Noon and 1:00-3:00 p.m. Come for one or both sessions. Leave with a calm feeling and a new skill that Tonya will be teaching participants.
Advanced registration is required, and will include the supplies you get to take home. NOTE NEW DATE
SouperSoul Lunch
Each Wednesday soup’s on at RH as we gather lunch (12:30 pm) and a contemplative practice (check the calendar each week). If you have time to pre-plan, please sign up. If you come at the last minute, this is okay, too! We hope to see you soon at RH.
Volunteers bring a vegan soup with bread options including GF. Soup makers are always needed. You are welcome to cook at the house or bring it by Noon. To sign up for a day to make soup, please email us.
Soulful Art
Join us Wednesday, June 25 for Soulful Art: Unfolding Treasures
Sandy Hammond and Karen Hoffman will be your facilitators for June’s Soulful Art gathering.
We are excited to share a new technique that we will explore together. Using various papers and embellishments, we will be folding and unfolding, ultimately creating special messages that will surely be cherished. Whether you make them for yourself or for someone else - for family or friends who are healing, or a birthday card for a favorite person in your life - these special unfolded treasures will be appreciated by all.
Soulful Art begins with a morning session, break for lunch and social time, and continues with an afternoon session.
Come for one or both. Enjoy a Souper Soul Soup Lunch with us too.
Donation of $10 requested for supplies.
Reserve your space here.
Stillness Retreat: Sliding into Summer Solstice
Summer Solstice is Friday, June 20. We are offering a special way to slide into summer at our June Stillness Retreat.
Participants will have an opportunity for community and independent time, as we listen to live harp meditation with Patsy, art creations tied to summer, playtime, reading, writing and simply being. Bring a friend and welcome in summer with Sherry Ward and Karen Hoffman. Lunch included (your selection will be made when registering)
SouperSoul Lunch
Each Wednesday soup’s on at RH as we gather lunch (12:30 pm) and a contemplative practice (check the calendar each week). If you have time to pre-plan, please sign up. If you come at the last minute, this is okay, too! We hope to see you soon at RH.
Volunteers bring a vegan soup with bread options including GF. Soup makers are always needed. You are welcome to cook at the house or bring it by Noon. To sign up for a day to make soup, please email us.
Harp Meditation with Patsy
On the third Wednesday of each month, our local harpist, Patsy Sadowski, fills our souls with the sound of contemplative harp at noon. Accompanied by poetry, prayers and other meditative readings, you won’t want to miss this experience. Then stay for soup and conversation. Let us know you’re coming so we set up space for you.
Gratefulness Gatherings
Join others as we explore the transformative possibilities of grateful living, and discover greater meaning, purpose, and joy in our lives. Grateful Gatherings will take place every month at Retreat House. We will gather every third Tuesday from 10:30 to noon.
Informed by spiritual wisdom, scholarship, and scientific research, the Gatherings provide community connection, invigorating reflection and conversation, and practical tools for living a meaningful and flourishing life.
Living gratefully helps you navigate the joys and difficulties that accompany life. This is not an exercise in avoiding the hard stuff you experience by pretending things are okay when they are not. Instead, living gratefully is being fully present to your life so that your perspective can be expanded, your compassion enhanced, and your purpose discovered in this moment. This is what makes every day more meaningful.
The Gatherings will be hosted by Richard Mickelson, a trained facilitator. We will utilize robust materials provided by the Grateful Living organization (grateful.org). The gathering is open to anyone seeking inspiration, resources, and fellowship for living life with purpose and joy.
The Grateful Living organization supports daily life during challenging and joyful times with programs, resources, and skills for being more fully alive. They have a revolutionary spirit like their founder, the internationally beloved “Grandfather of Gratitude,” Br. David Steindl-Rast. They are a global nonprofit organization that empowers people to live meaningful lives through the transformative practice of grateful living.
Contact Richard at 123ramick@gmail.com; or contact inquiry@retreathousecommunity.org
Consider making a donation to Retreat House to help us tend spaces for little to no cost.
Writer's Gathering online
We all have a story to share. As writers of stories, it is good to join with others to share our journeys, thoughts, ideas, struggles, and “aha"s. Writers often compose in solitude but get energy, inspiration, and insight when we meet in community with other writers. In this online gathering we discuss what we are writing, why we are writing, where our hopes and struggles are, and who we are when we write. No experience is necessary to join in the fun. Writers’ Gathering is for all writers in all genres - beginner, novice, experienced.
This gathering is a sacred space of giving and receiving. Facilitated by Gretchen Martens
SouperSoul Lunch with the RH BOD
Each Wednesday soup’s on at RH as we gather lunch (12:30 pm) and a contemplative practice (check the calendar each week). If you have time to pre-plan, please sign up. If you come at the last minute, this is okay, too! We hope to see you soon at RH.
Volunteers bring a vegan soup with bread options including GF. Soup makers are always needed. You are welcome to cook at the house or bring it by Noon. To sign up for a day to make soup, please email us.
Interspiritual Meditation
Jackie Linden Schade, pastor, spiritual director and trained ISM facilitator joins Fran Shelton, author, pastor and spiritual director, as they bring InterSpiritual Meditation back to Retreat House this fall. ISM brings ancient teachings to modern day, allowing individuals space for personal practice.
We will gather in person at Retreat House, 2nd Sunday of each month, 5-7 p.m.
Open to all. Questions or RSVP here.
SouperSoul Lunch
Each Wednesday soup’s on at RH as we gather lunch (12:30 pm) and a contemplative practice (check the calendar each week). If you have time to pre-plan, please sign up. If you come at the last minute, this is okay, too! We hope to see you soon at RH.
Volunteers bring a vegan soup with bread options including GF. Soup makers are always needed. You are welcome to cook at the house or bring it by Noon. To sign up for a day to make soup, please email us.
SouperSoul Lunch
Each Wednesday soup’s on at RH as we gather lunch (12:30 pm) and a contemplative practice (check the calendar each week). If you have time to pre-plan, please sign up. If you come at the last minute, this is okay, too! We hope to see you soon at RH.
Volunteers bring a vegan soup with bread options including GF. Soup makers are always needed. You are welcome to cook at the house or bring it by Noon. To sign up for a day to make soup, please email us.
SouperSoul Lunch
Each Wednesday soup’s on at RH as we gather lunch (12:30 pm) and a contemplative practice (check the calendar each week). If you have time to pre-plan, please sign up. If you come at the last minute, this is okay, too! We hope to see you soon at RH.
Volunteers bring a vegan soup with bread options including GF. Soup makers are always needed. You are welcome to cook at the house or bring it by Noon. To sign up for a day to make soup, please email us.
Harp Meditation with Patsy
On the third Wednesday of each month, our local harpist, Patsy Sadowski, fills our souls with the sound of contemplative harp at noon. Accompanied by poetry, prayers and other meditative readings, you won’t want to miss this experience. Then stay for soup and conversation. Let us know you’re coming so we set up space for you.
Gratefulness Gatherings
Join others as we explore the transformative possibilities of grateful living, and discover greater meaning, purpose, and joy in our lives. Grateful Gatherings will take place every month at Retreat House. We will gather every third Tuesday from 10:30 to noon.
Informed by spiritual wisdom, scholarship, and scientific research, the Gatherings provide community connection, invigorating reflection and conversation, and practical tools for living a meaningful and flourishing life.
Living gratefully helps you navigate the joys and difficulties that accompany life. This is not an exercise in avoiding the hard stuff you experience by pretending things are okay when they are not. Instead, living gratefully is being fully present to your life so that your perspective can be expanded, your compassion enhanced, and your purpose discovered in this moment. This is what makes every day more meaningful.
The Gatherings will be hosted by Richard Mickelson, a trained facilitator. We will utilize robust materials provided by the Grateful Living organization (grateful.org). The gathering is open to anyone seeking inspiration, resources, and fellowship for living life with purpose and joy.
The Grateful Living organization supports daily life during challenging and joyful times with programs, resources, and skills for being more fully alive. They have a revolutionary spirit like their founder, the internationally beloved “Grandfather of Gratitude,” Br. David Steindl-Rast. They are a global nonprofit organization that empowers people to live meaningful lives through the transformative practice of grateful living.
Contact Richard at 123ramick@gmail.com; or contact inquiry@retreathousecommunity.org
Consider making a donation to Retreat House to help us tend spaces for little to no cost.
Common Ground: Interfaith Conversation and Lunch
Mark your calendar for Third Thursdays each month where we gather over a delicious lunch and share stories, insights and traditions around a theme - through the lived experiences and teachings of various faiths.
The theme for May is Spiritual Authority. Join us for a fascinating discussion about questions of authority from different faith perspectives. Inspired by this month’s Conclave, we will discuss how various traditions structure and deliver spiritual authority; how people find guidance through their faith community; how our interactions with authority inform and nurture our personal relationship with the Divine; and the role of hierarchy in religious authority over us. We will be talking through various lenses: global sense, practical and even local perspectives. We will explore stories, experiences and questions.
As one of our regular programs, Common Ground speaks to our Core Values of Brave Vulnerability, Cultivation, Chesed, Cross Pollination and the sharing of Sacred Stories.
No Cost - Please let us know you’re joining us with your RSVP .here.
SouperSoul Lunch with the RH BOD
Each Wednesday soup’s on at RH as we gather lunch (12:30 pm) and a contemplative practice (check the calendar each week). If you have time to pre-plan, please sign up. If you come at the last minute, this is okay, too! We hope to see you soon at RH.
Volunteers bring a vegan soup with bread options including GF. Soup makers are always needed. You are welcome to cook at the house or bring it by Noon. To sign up for a day to make soup, please email us.
Interspiritual Meditation
Jackie Linden Schade, pastor, spiritual director and trained ISM facilitator joins Fran Shelton, author, pastor and spiritual director, as they bring InterSpiritual Meditation back to Retreat House this fall. ISM brings ancient teachings to modern day, allowing individuals space for personal practice.
We will gather in person at Retreat House, 2nd Sunday of each month, 5-7 p.m.
Open to all. Questions or RSVP here.
Writer's Gathering online
We all have a story to share. As writers of stories, it is good to join with others to share our journeys, thoughts, ideas, struggles, and “aha"s. Writers often compose in solitude but get energy, inspiration, and insight when we meet in community with other writers. In this online gathering we discuss what we are writing, why we are writing, where our hopes and struggles are, and who we are when we write. No experience is necessary to join in the fun. Writers’ Gathering is for all writers in all genres - beginner, novice, experienced.
This gathering is a sacred space of giving and receiving. Facilitated by Gretchen Martens
SouperSoul Lunch
Each Wednesday soup’s on at RH as we gather lunch (12:30 pm) and a contemplative practice (check the calendar each week). If you have time to pre-plan, please sign up. If you come at the last minute, this is okay, too! We hope to see you soon at RH.
Volunteers bring a vegan soup with bread options including GF. Soup makers are always needed. You are welcome to cook at the house or bring it by Noon. To sign up for a day to make soup, please email us.
SouperSoul Lunch
Each Wednesday soup’s on at RH as we gather lunch (12:30 pm) and a contemplative practice (check the calendar each week). If you have time to pre-plan, please sign up. If you come at the last minute, this is okay, too! We hope to see you soon at RH.
Volunteers bring a vegan soup with bread options including GF. Soup makers are always needed. You are welcome to cook at the house or bring it by Noon. To sign up for a day to make soup, please email us.
Wild Wander with Clay and Regina
Participants will meet at 10 am near Prairie Creek Park in Richardson. Gathering location is 301 Meadowcrest Drive.
Vedic Fire CEREMONY with Lavanga
The Vedic fire ceremony is an instrument that harnesses the sattvic (pure) quality of Agni (The Eternal Flame)
It is known as Homa, Puja or Yajna, and is considered sacred. This ancient ritual is performed at precise times depending on celestial events. Daily sunrises and sunsets, monthly lunation cycles or major planetary transits are used as guides for timing. In daily life they are used in celebration or as an auspicious offering to bring about peaceful change and abundance.
A “kunda,” a square pit that faces all four directions, is used to contain the fire. Practitioners offer into it gifts of grains, ghee, herbs and seeds as specific mantras are repeated.
The sacred fire coupled with prayerful intention removes fear, spreads joy, burns karma, purifies the environment and creates conditions for peace and prosperity.
The fire ceremony is among the most powerful of spiritual practices because it beckons the burning up of the ignorance, delusion and obstacles that keep us from the success of knowing our own divinity, our truest source of power and intelligence.
(we can adjust this part to suit the intention for this ceremony) In this particular ceremony we will be calling upon Divine Ancestors from all faith traditions to join us in offering up prayers.
Bio: Born and raised in Texas, Lavanga has lived a spiritual life since childhood and began exploring yoga and metaphysics in her teens. A Catholic school foundation led her to find her home in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, a 5,000 year old Bhakti Yoga lineage, and has been a priestess in the tradition since 2005.
In 2011 she began offering classes in the Bhagavad Gita and other texts, leading group meditations (kirtan) and representing her Tradition in interfaith communities around the Dallas / Ft. Worth Metroplex. She is also currently a practising “jyotisha” (Astrologer) and loves sharing the wisdom from the ancient Vedic texts in ways that are applicable to modern practitioners of all faith traditions.
Register for Thursday Wild Week at RH (or the entire week!) here. Walk-ins welcome.
Come early for yoga stretch at 4 pm and a yummy vegan dinner.
Vedic Fire CEREMONY with Lavanga
The Vedic fire ceremony is an instrument that harnesses the sattvic (pure) quality of Agni (The Eternal Flame)
It is known as Homa, Puja or Yajna, and is considered sacred. This ancient ritual is performed at precise times depending on celestial events. Daily sunrises and sunsets, monthly lunation cycles or major planetary transits are used as guides for timing. In daily life they are used in celebration or as an auspicious offering to bring about peaceful change and abundance.
A “kunda,” a square pit that faces all four directions, is used to contain the fire. Practitioners offer into it gifts of grains, ghee, herbs and seeds as specific mantras are repeated.
The sacred fire coupled with prayerful intention removes fear, spreads joy, burns karma, purifies the environment and creates conditions for peace and prosperity.
The fire ceremony is among the most powerful of spiritual practices because it beckons the burning up of the ignorance, delusion and obstacles that keep us from the success of knowing our own divinity, our truest source of power and intelligence.
(we can adjust this part to suit the intention for this ceremony) In this particular ceremony we will be calling upon Divine Ancestors from all faith traditions to join us in offering up prayers.
Bio: Born and raised in Texas, Lavanga has lived a spiritual life since childhood and began exploring yoga and metaphysics in her teens. A Catholic school foundation led her to find her home in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, a 5,000 year old Bhakti Yoga lineage, and has been a priestess in the tradition since 2005.
In 2011 she began offering classes in the Bhagavad Gita and other texts, leading group meditations (kirtan) and representing her Tradition in interfaith communities around the Dallas / Ft. Worth Metroplex. She is also currently a practising “jyotisha” (Astrologer) and loves sharing the wisdom from the ancient Vedic texts in ways that are applicable to modern practitioners of all faith traditions.
Register for Thursday Wild Week at RH (or the entire week!) here. Walk-ins welcome.
Stay for yoga stretch at 4 pm and a yummy vegan dinner.