The Gentlest Spring Retreat (SOLD OUT)

"I would like to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding." - John O'Donohue

3/28: The Gentlest Spring Retreat has sold out. The optional Zoom events for the retreat, though, remain open to anyone who wishes to join! Simply drop me a line for the code; I'd love to see you there. If you'd like to join the email list I use for my teaching, which is NOT the same as the email list that lets folks know about posts to this blog, drop me a line about that so we can get you earlier notice next time.

Beloved friends,

Spring is coming, and after this strangest of years, budding feels both tender and vital. I wish to support you with a spring retreat. I have endeavored to create one which is as gentle and flexible as possible, and as deep and sincere as all my work. Here is the heart of it: for four weeks, from March 27 through April 25, I will invite you, each week, to practice a little rest, a little nourishment, a little expression.

I will suggest, and aim to inspire; you get to choose. Rest could be napping or going to sleep a little early. It could be five minutes with your legs up the wall or a warm bath. It could also be resting from something as in a fast, like that second cup of coffee or alcohol or binge-watching or midnight pizza. Nourishment might be watching the sun rise, riding a horse, green juice, self-massage, reading something inspiring, lovemaking, meditation, or... maybe that midnight pizza feeds your soul! You do you, darling. Expression could be outward: small acts of kindness, thank you notes, apologies. It could be inward: journaling or vision boards. It could be creating anything at all. It could be sobbing or hurling rocks into the sea and screaming. I am offering a loom; you will weave upon it. Whether you make this simple or deeply engaging is up to you. We will spend a month engaged in mindful action and sharing, and I believe that this will naturally lead you to integration, healing, and rejuvenation.

I will support and encourage you with a weekly teaching letter. Each week we will share our practice; sharing groups will contain a maximum of 10 people to keep communication at a reasonable level. All of this could be so very simple: you could: take a nap (rest), eat a cookie from your beloved departed grandmother’s recipe (nourishment), burn a candle for her (expression), and share that in the 19 words it just took me to say that. You could also speak at length about your experience and insights; what you choose to share is up to you. The purpose of sharing is for you to receive the soul food of being seen, the inspiration of seeing one another, and a little accountability to help nudge you toward that. If you are joining the retreat with a friend and wish to be in the same group, just let me know. (If you are used to my meditation course format, please note that individual replies are not a part of this retreat; the reply will be a part of the weekly teaching. You are welcome to schedule a private session if you wish for more individual engagement with me, of course; in the basic form here I am aiming for elegant simplicity.)

Optional online events via Zoom
Included in retreat, donation-based for others. All welcome:  
- Meditation Gathering Wednesdays 8-8:55am Pacific
- Self-Massage and Deep Relaxation Workshops 8-9:30am Pacific Saturdays April 3 and 17th, Sunday April 11
- Daylong Practice Sunday April 25, details to come

(Note: I am on a boat in Mexico; on very rare occasions there are internet snafus that are outside of my control. If you aren't on the email list for my teaching events, drop me a line for the Zoom information for these!)

Recordings:
I will create for you a new 6 minute mindful breathing practice and 20 minute contemplative meditation practice you can weave into your practice if you wish. I usually end up sharing more meditations than are promised. You might also make use of the selection on beloved.org, from any prior work with me, or from any other resources you may be using. Meditation is not required of you! It is an option that you have. This is a Choose Your Own Retreat, the Gentlest Spring Retreat. The top photograph of me practicing yoga in the largest open space on my boat, between the laundry and the groceries, is a carefully chosen symbol.

Cost:
I wish to make this retreat widely accessible. I think that $100 sounds fair as a low end for the sliding scale. I hope that you will find as much personal benefit as you do from a classic $500 weekend retreat. Scholarships will be available. So: $100 on up, as you wish; please talk to me if money is hard for you right now. Payment is via Paypal to dahlia@beloved.org and can be spread throughout the course if that helps; again, please reach out to discuss.

Registration:
Send me an email to dahlia@beloved.org.

Giving Back:
Each season I give 5% of what I earn. For spring, we will be supporting the Scholarship-Based BIPOC 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training program at the Integral Yoga Institute, led by and for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color as an effort of the IYI toward dismantling structural and institutional racism in yoga by encouraging a diverse range of teaching voices. I know and trust the people leading this program; they include my own teachers and students.

Who am I?
If a friend has sent this your way, hello and welcome! I'm Kristie Dahlia Home. I've been teaching various healing arts since 1995. I'm currently a wandering mystic aboard a sailboat named Rejoice, as you can see on this blog. My practice consists of therapeutic yoga, contemplative meditation, body and energy work (I have trained in Thai Yoga Massage, a bit of Chi Nei Tsang, intuitive healing, and wish that this title was less silly than Reiki Master, but am one of those), and devotion. I sing to the sky. I identify spiritually as a Priestess of the Mystery – I made that up, and I mean it sincerely. My teachers are many, and life is my temple.

I should probably say something more formal, so a few of the bigger feathers in my cap are: I held clinician status (like a doctor) at UCSF's Osher Center for Integrative Medicine as a yoga therapist. At California Pacific Medical Center, my speciality was therapeutic yoga for cancer patients. I have taught Thai Yoga Massage at the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired and have taught for medical research at UCSF and with Dr. Dean Ornish's Preventative Medicine Research Institute. I spent ten years rolling on the floor doing yoga and storytelling at San Francisco's Hamlin School. I have led dozens of retreats, often at California's dear Harbin Hot Springs. I have supported both birthing and dying and written and officiated many weddings. My book Yoga: Natural Fitness for Body and Spirit has been translated into...  I think it's five languages.

I am a devotional agnostic: I do not believe my tiny human brain is capable of understanding the fullness of existence. I can't even understand that time is apparently not linear; how could I know what being is? I believe that we are life, living itself; we are the life of the Earth and the cosmos, and I choose to call this sacred. The Vijnana Bhairava Tantra is my most cherished text; if you are comforted by details, that is nondualist Kashmir Shaivism, which says: every moment is the moment in which you might awaken. Every experience is sacred.

I truly believe that love is the way.

Drop me a line if you'd like to talk or ask a question.