Appreciation for Hestia Retreat's Monthly Hearth Circles, by Diane Schulstad

"I find great wisdom in a quote from Joseph Campbell: "I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive."  My key to finding my own “experience of being alive” is to contemplate the myriad facets that make up my life.  The extraordinary and the mundane... the grand revelations and the daily grind... all are a part of my experience of being alive.  Yet if I never take the time to consider the separate threads and notice the individual vivid colors and interweaving that create this glorious tapestry of experience, life may seem to be pure chaos. 

I have attended two of the Hestia Hearth Circles, and each has allowed me to set aside a span of time for that necessary contemplation.   The Hestia Circles are expertly planned to create a safe and sacred space that encourages expansion of thought.  There is a choice of fascinating topics; the ones that I choose allow me to consider those aspects of my life.  Once I have registered, my attention is already focused upon the topic at hand. From the moment one enters a Circle, the Spirit’s response to beauty and sustenance is carefully tended.   In the entryway of the “Waking Into Dream” Circle, a table stood with a bouquet of beautiful flowers, a bowl of ripe, red strawberries and a plate of broken pieces of dark chocolate. Entering the room where the spiritual work/play would take place, cushioned wicker chairs with instructive packets were set in a circle, with symbolic art in the center of the circle.  Everywhere I looked in the room, there was something to awaken my curiosity and my desire to journey into the contemplative life. 

Yet I need not go on this journey alone, and that is what is exceptionally wonderful to me about the Hestia Circles.  The Circles create an intimate and warm community of like-minded women coming together to meditate and then share the wisdom from that period of reflection. I have found sharing to be a profoundly emotional experience: I value the observations of life that each woman in the Circle offers and it is a distinct honor to have my own thoughts heard.   The Circle leaders initiate our sharing with astute insights into the topics at hand and suggestions for thought.   

I am grateful for Hestia Retreat’s grace-filled events, particularly since the leaders are donating their time and considerable efforts to create an affordable experience for those of us that participate.  With my appreciation and applause!"

 ~ Diane Schulstad

Why I Retreat, by Cynthia Perkins

Recently, I happened upon this quote from John Ruskin’s Modern Painters: “The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something….To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion, all in one.”

For a number of years, I have practiced a type of meditation called Vispassana, which is often translated as “insight” meditation.  I like thinking of it that way – as seeing inside myself. While any time period spent in any type of contemplative practice enhances such insight, I feel I have greatly benefited from the clarity I’ve found in longer retreats.

I try to keep up a regular practice at home, but I know by physically removing myself from my home and the relationships, routines, and tasks that fill my daily life, my mind is able to settle more readily and deeply. It’s as if I spend most of my time splashing about in the shallows of a large body of water where it is turbulent and murky. Retreating is like slowly wading out and gently sinking below the surface waves, further and further down where things get very quiet and still and clear. Here on the floor of this ocean, with the silt all settled, I can experience myself, feel my body, and see my habitual thought patterns and emotional responses with such precious clarity.

Over the years, I’ve attended a number of 3-10 day silent residential retreats. Usually it takes at least a couple of days to drift downward into the deep.  But, sure enough, the long stretches of meditation, the serenity of the retreat center and its routines, and the withdrawal of the need to attend to the outside world begins to work its magic.

And there’s another magical component that blossoms in being surrounded by like-minded people. Even though we’re all doing our own things, maybe not talking or even making eye contact with each other, I still feel a strong communal support among the attendees. Even while doing my own work in these retreats, I find validation and inspiration by being among people who, like me, recognize the value of contemplation, the value of seeing life clearly.

Why I Retreat, by Kirsten Foot

"As a spouse, mother, and professional, I crave time that is unscheduled and free of obligations and space away from the (beloved) people and (important) tasks that constantly seek my attention. So I retreat regularly: For the last several years I have taken a 24-hour silent retreat by myself every 3-4 months.

I use the common phrase “taking a retreat” when I need to tell others what I’m doing, but it sounds odd to me. Giving myself time to listen is what I understand myself to be doing when I retreat. As a nature-lover, I listen to the sounds of nature and I am refreshed. As a God-lover, I listen for the still, small, but transformative voice of the Holy Spirit, and I am renewed. And as I love myself by listening to my own spirit, I become more centered. All of this listening helps me become more clear about who I am (and who I am not), and thus more authentic in every realm of my life, every relationship.

I find that retreating in silence/solitude several times a year restores my sense of joy in the people and tasks that fill most of my days--at least most of them, most of the time. When I find myself feeling a persistent lack of joy, or outright dread, about re-engaging with someone or something following a retreat time, I listen to that, too. Sometimes I realize I need to alter my attitude, sometimes I become aware that I need to change my way of engaging, and sometimes I realize that I simply must find ways to disengage. Without regular retreats, I would trudge on joylessly, with less clarity about what saps my joy and less energy to make the necessary changes. Retreating from daily life gives me greater joy, peace, and strength to pour into daily living."

How Hestia Came To Be, by Valerie Manusov

Like most of us reading this newsletter, I get a bit too busy sometimes. And when I do, my tendency in the past has been to just push through and not stop to rest until it is all done. Of course, it is never all done. So, we just keep on going. But sometimes it gets too much and/or we are given the chance to reflect on our habitual ways of dealing with our busy-ness. One of those times came for me when my son was one (he is now 15). His first year was particularly hard, and I was more than exhausted.

Because I am a faculty member, however, I had to go to an academic conference. In a way, I welcomed doing so, as I was able to have a bit of a break from caretaking. I also welcomed it because, unlike most of the conferences I need to attend, this one was in a beautiful place: Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. For the first time in a year, I had some sense of open space around me. I had a bed to myself, and I had no one interrupting me. I have come to believe that the psychological space I felt, combined with the inspiring natural environment, allowed for an opening in my heart that I had not had in a while. And in that opening, I was given a gift: I came to see, in great detail, a place just for women where they could come anytime that they wanted and were able to, just to be. To be quiet. To be contemplative. To be cradled. To be inspired. To be left alone. Or, as has developed over time, to be in community with others.

I told some people about it at the time, as the vision was wonderful, and it did not seem to have come from my own mind. But I was a mother of a young child, and a relatively early career academic, and the time was not right to start a retreat center. In fact, I really had no idea what it was I envisioned nor what it was meant to accomplish.

Over time, however, I have come to a very different sense about this whole project. I have come to believe that what is now called Hestia Retreat, named after the Greek goddess of hearth and sanctuary, is a part of a worldwide set of changes meant to provide a more supportive environment in which humans can live and thrive. Our particular part of these changes focuses on women and our particular need to take time from our everyday lives to reconnect with ourselves, to understand what calls us, and to honor what our bodies and hearts want us to hear. This feels like a sacred contract. By that I mean two things: that those of us who are creating Hestia Retreat are doing so in the support of something imperative to our global well-being, and, as individual women, it is a sacred act to take care of ourselves, to listen to our own voices, and be who we are as fully and authentically as possible. Retreating is a significant part of that process. And Hestia Retreat is meant to provide the absolutely best and most beautiful place for that sacred commitment to self and the larger world. Vashon Island has proven to be the perfect location for Hestia Retreat to be housed.

Everything has aligned thus far to make Hestia Retreat possible. When I finally decided that the time WAS right (in late 2009), I immediately met Pam (now Mela) Bredouw, whose lifelong heartfelt desire was to create a women's retreat. The two of us have an incredible partnership and a very feminine sense of how Hestia needs to come to fruition. Over time, we have been joined by a much larger circle (a Hestia symbol, by the way) of women who have supported the crafting of a much more complete vision of Hestia Retreat, literally and figuratively creating the "hearthstones" of our project.

This larger circle has revealed the importance of community, of women supporting, teaching, and learning from one another. The awareness that women need quiet and they need a certain kind of community and connection has enlarged the vision of what our "retreat" will offer. So, while there will always be a focus on quiet and serenity, Hestia Retreat will also be a place for coming together in support of one another. Our monthly "hearth circles" and our annual Women's Day of Wellness are all held in support of the magnificence of what can occur when women share their gifts and their open hearts.

The Hestia Retreat project has been an act of faith, something an academically-minded person like myself can find challenging. But I have learned to "listen" to the synchronicity of events and trust that we will grow as we are ready to do so. None of this is on our time schedule. It has its own unfolding. And I am learning to honor that. In doing so, I have learned so much about the ways of life, the magic that exists all around us but that can be hard to notice. Unless, of course, we slow down...and take time to retreat.