When you step into nature, when you relax into nature, you are sinking into the birthing of life on earth: the womb of your form, your body. It is pristine, pure. You “unfold” into your body parts, and they provide vessels of perception and movement into your future. The beginning of this unfolding bypasses your thinking mind circuits – which are still developing – and connects your awareness, through those cells, directly to the vibrating slowness of the calm, peace and magical and unseen forces of Nature that form your body, without a word being spoken, but only Felt. This is deeply engrained in your cells and awareness and can be reawakened.

NATURE IS THE INTERMEDIARY LIVING FORCE that gave you a body and mind, and the Primary Force, whatever you may call it, the Mystery/ God/the Divine or countless other names for what is Felt, that primary force gave the awareness that you are ALIVE, that you EXIST, in a body. You feel it: you don’t think that you are alive; you know that you are alive through other channels of awareness! How can that be, to know not through your thinking mind but through some other mechanism?!

SO, NATURE ASSEMBLES US into a shape, a form, a frequency that can move and express itself here. Yes, we are still learning to Love with ease and to express that everywhere. But it, Nature, provides a school, a backdrop in which our species is learning to Be Itself.

THE EARTH IS A UNIVERSAL PLAYGROUND FOR ANY LIVING PRESENCE HERE. A sense feeling of this playground needs to be reawakened in us; it will help us heal. Allow yourself to learn to contact it deeply, sinking into it with awareness, not a thinking mind. Melding with it in this way stimulates awe of the beauty of you even existing: being able to hear, see, touch, smell, or taste, to be able to feel whatever it is you may feel in your adventures here.

Do you even know what a sound is?  From where does it arise, come from?

What about a ‘seeing” of something? How can that be?! What is it?

Or what is a “feeling of or touching” of something?

What is “tasting;” what are you actually doing/experiencing?

Oh yes, we can describe, in exquisite detail, what it is made of through nature’s shapes and forms, but where do any of these perceptions come from, how did they arise, come into existence in the first place?  It truly is a mystery, for do we truly know what anything is?  Somehow, somewhere, something is Alive and Living everything. What a wonder!

SINKING INTO NATURE IGNITES THE BEGINNING OF SINKING INTO THE WHOLENESS OF WHAT YOU ARE, the arising of Consciousness, the Mystery, God itself, into form.

What “that” is, no one knows…

NATURE IS BEAUTY IN ITS RAW FORM, waiting to feel you feeling it, accepting it as an ally, a gift-giver of balance and peace as you spend your time on earth. This, in itself, gives rise to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. It can become a steppingstone for your higher evolution, igniting love of the mystery of Creation itself. This refreshes and balances you, giving strength for all of your adventures in your life, some beautiful, and, yes, some quite confusing, until we deeply understand what is truly happening here, deep in our souls.

SO, PLEASE: meld with Nature while you are in or with it; allow your senses to absorb it, allow peace to enter you.  It is an unspoken language; it is a Language of the Heart.  Nature radiates aspects of this to you; it waits for you; let it support you. Take this language of languages with you into your life and onto the planet everywhere you go; it ignites awe, and awe melts the mind and allows the heart to open.

Sink into Nature and receive.

Once you open to how to do so, it is yours forever.

RETREAT ACTIVITIES:  The retreat will focus on unique, simple tools and practices for contacting the living flow of the very Nature of Life, which is a wondrous loving stream of relaxed movement through body, mind and spirit. Sharings focus on helping participants become sensitive to awarenesses that indicate how to exist peacefully, happily and without stress. The land itself provides its own catalytic force for transformation when participants become immersed in the peaceful and meditative space.

AT THE RETREAT: A safe, supportive environment will be provided where you can begin to uncoil life-stresses and absorb new ways of being. Be prepared to relax, receive, absorb, and take home tools for a life of peace and expression.

AS A BACKDROP: This 145-acre retreat sanctuary & nature preserve is dedicated to life balance and connection. Enjoy rolling hills, wooded trails, organic gardens and food, a pond and overnight stays in cabins or bungalows.

AUGUST 21st-23rd

Manchester, MI

www.grasslakesanctuary.org

Download Retreat Brochure

Presentations

OUR FEELING NATURE and
THE FEELING OF NATURE
also
AN OASIS, TRIGGER MECHANISMS & YOU
Brenda Morgan, PhD

ON SOLID GROUND:
Building & Restoring Foundations
Of The Heart
Robin Brophy BS, CDA

WALKING WITH NATURE
Marnie Burkman, MD

FEELING NATURE THROUGH MUSIC
Dick Chrisman, Ph.D

WABI SABI:
Nothing Lasts, Nothing Is Finished,
and Nothing Is Perfect
Alisa Dowell, BS

LISTENING AND HEARING:
Pathways To Connecting
Jim Dreyer

NATURE & VULNERABILITY
Tom Egan, M.ED

DOING LESS, BEING MORE:
The Art Of Resting & Rejuvenating
Lana Jerome, GLS Land Steward, MG, CTP

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?
Joanna Mills, BS, MA

NURTURING LIFE:
The Mysterious Power
Of Smiles & Laughter
Carl Newmeyer, BA

JOIN-UP:
Nature, You, and Stories From The Heart
Annette Thoin, BSE, MA
To register:

Download Retreat Brochure & Registration

Please send your registration & deposit to:

Brenda Morgan, PhD
P.O. Box 130842
Ann Arbor, MI
48113

or pay online:

$75 Non Refundable Deposit

$395 Daytime Attendance w/ Lunch & Snacks

$440 Overnight Stay with 7 meals/snacks*

*Options for overnight stays in cabins/bungalows $100 total per night, four per unit. For housing information please contact Patty Hart at 734-645-7251 or email

When registration payment received, a pre-retreat packet will be sent to you by email or mail.  OVERNIGHT STAYS in cabin/bungalow are also available.

For housing information please contact
Patty Hart at 734-645-7251 or email

For more information call 734-494-0674

Email: info@movedbythelight.com

REFLECTIONS FOR EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE:

All matter in life begins as a pattern, from the molecules rotating in space to the steel beams and frameworks for high rises. Cellular structures have patterns. Architectural structures have patterns. To enter this realm, patterns must exist or forms could not take shape. Anywhere you look, even in seeming chaos, a pattern, a print can be found. How can anyone assume one’s life does not have a pattern, a print, when all of creation arises from one? Your life has purpose, meaning, and is imprinted with the Universe’s Signature.

UNIVERSAL SPIRITUAL TRUTHS

The basic structures of reality have patterns that allow life to be lived in harmony, within oneself and with others. The following are basic spiritual truths, universal in nature, which apply for all living beings in any form. When they are followed, the physical/emotional/mental patterns that “hold” your attention go into balance and the higher forces of change and evolution can then activate on your behalf.

•    Each soul must, through its own yearning and desire, develop a relationship with and eventually surrender into what lives it: the Universe itself, God, the Light.

•    Each soul must care for and respect the body in which it finds itself.

•    Each soul must acknowledge that all living beings, including itself, have a purpose, a reason for being, even if it is not consciously understood.

•    Each soul must care for and respect the earth which provides nourishment as wellas a home and space to explore existence.

•    Each soul must live with honesty and integrity. Perfection is not important, but acknowledging mistakes and learning from them, at whatever pace you can, is.

•    Each soul must learn to let go of any and all manipulation of other’s lives and simpler life forms.

•    All must live from their unique blueprint and expression, or the tendency to judge and gossip will arise. When in doubt, express who you are in some small or big way, and your fears as well as doubts will begin to dissolve automatically.

•    Life will present challenges and choices to help you evolve and open to yourself and the Divine.

•    Human beings cannot determine when to employ Love, for:

“Love is pulsing through every article of creation. God has no special moments, and Love needs to be radiated even when it is most uncomfortable. We must come to the conclusion that we have no choice but to Love.”

                               (Quote from Michael Silverman)

(Found many years ago, not sure where. But if you are interested in evolution on any level, this is a wonderful reminder…)

CHAPTER 1:

I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost…I am helpless. It isn’t my fault. It takes forever to find a way out.

CHAPTER 2:

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don’t see it. I fall in, again. I can’t believe I am in this same place! But it isn’t my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.

CHAPTER 3:

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I fall in…it’s a habit…but my eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately.

CHAPTER 4:

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

CHAPTER 5:

I walk down a different street.

-=-

May you take the time to reflect upon this pattern within your own lives, and be willing to release the pain that keeps you in such a rut. You are able to heal; you just must care for yourself the way you take care of something or someone that you love. The Universe is Love itself; you are the Universe. You are learning to Love who you are and all that arises everywhere. Life and Love are one and the same. And yes, this includes you . . . how can it not?!

There is nothing wrong with experiencing life and its many possibilities. However, to assume that gaining temporary contentment through things that change is all there is to life is false. The desire for true peace, happiness and contentment as a permanent state is prior to things that change; it is the fabric of the universe, the cosmic matrix, the energy which lives everything.

What is seeking?

•    When the mind and body is always looking for stimulation within and without to feel a sense of purpose, value and accomplishment.

•    When one is always trying to ‘release’ through the body or mind, independent of Spirit.

•    The wanting to feel better temporarily, rather than being dependent upon Spirit for one’s well-being.

•    The wanting to feel better relative to your experience here, not in terms of surrender of the perception that you are a separate entity, i.e., an ego.

Seeking is understanding that the human circuitry, the nervous system, is always self-referring, seeking something – in the world or inside oneself – to try to get rid of the discomfort that something is missing, to have a sense of temporary release from this stress.

The only way to live in a perpetual state of release is to Open to What Lives us.

All else is seeking through things that change.