Praise for "Hurry Up and Slow Down"
Last fall, when I felt as if I had NO TIME, and I mean NONE, to do anything, because I was so busy, I signed up for this retreat.
What a big gift I gave myself... I did not have much time, so having some focused time to replenish my spirit was great.
Highly recommended!
--Fran Rossi Szpylczyn, New York
The "Hurry Up and Slow Down" retreat was one of the most valuable I have ever experienced, because, it encourages the participants to take nuggets of time on a regular basis for guided reflection and renewal, rather than trying to devote a whole weekend or several evenings to the pursuit. It's well done and well worth the time commitment as well as the money.
--Joanne Fisher, Michigan
What, when, where
* A 6-week online retreat from September 23 to November 3
* At home, in your daily life, 15 minutes a day
* Simple, accessible, gently focused on practice, with spiritual exercises
* Each week of the retreat has an anchoring theme:
mindfulness
breath
place
time
community
earth
* Suitable for those who are religiously affiliated as well as for those who consider themselves spiritual, but not religious.
* If you think you don't have time for "Hurry Up and Slow Down," you're exactly the person who will benefit from it.
You are, of course, most welcome if you do have time!
Cost
$105 if you register (and mail your check) by Tuesday, September 17 Thursday, September 19 (discount deadline extended!)..
$135 if you register between Fri., Sept. 20 and Wed., Sept. 25.
Some discounts are available at discount for those in financial hardship. Talk to me.
Read below for a more detailed description.
Write me at
readwithredmont@earthlink.net
to register
or
if you have any questions or concerns.
Details
Hurry Up and Slow Down is a spiritual retreat accompanying your daily life. It offers guidance, but it is not an academic class with a lot of reading. It is simple, accessible, and gently focused on practice -- the "how" of living every day mindfully and reverently, in a way that suits our own circumstances and takes into account how busy we are. Each week will have a theme or anchor. The weekly themes will be rich and basic:
* mindfulness * breath * place * time * community * earth *
These themes can be building blocks of spiritual practice whether we are religiously affiliated or not.
Every week, with the theme of the week, will include four components, offered each Sunday and accompanying you throughout the week:
1. Awareness of the week's theme:
Taking stock, naming, asking and answering questions, doing a little writing (or drawing if we are more visually inclined).
2. Inspiration:
A short reading, an image, an insight, a bit of wisdom about the theme for us to ponder during the week.
3. Practice:
An exercise related to the week's theme, a concrete how-to that we can incorporate into our daily life throughout the week.
4. Tradition(s):
Some insights into the week's theme from the experience and wisdom of religious traditions. We are not the first to grapple with the themes of our retreat and we are not alone.
Registration
The retreat begins Monday, September 23.
Registration will remain open till Wednesday of the first week of the retreat (September 25) but please note that cost is less expensive if you register early!
To register, write Jane Redmont at readwithredmont@earthlink.net.
Payment
As I noted above, the cost for this six-week retreat is $135 for the full six weeks but only $105 if you register (and mail your check by) Tuesday, September 17. A few discounted places are available for the financially strained; you are on your honor to decide whether this applies to you. Please write and ask about this if you are in a situation of financial hardship.
Write me at readwithredmont@earthlink.net to register. Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration, by check or money order. I will send you the mailing address when you write me to register.
How can you have an online retreat?
By offering the retreat resources (themes, quotes, images, videos, guidelines for spiritual exercises, and more) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.
What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (in this case the retreat facilitator) allows in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. Random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments. Once you register for the course, I will send instructions on the one-time sign-in mechanism. After that, the blog will always recognize you.
A recent article about online retreats
Jane Redmont is quoted and featured in the article. Read it here.
Privacy and community
Do I have to talk to other people on the retreat? I'm a very private person.
and/or
Can I get some support here? I'm not sure I can stick to this all by myself.
The retreat will offer you a choice in finding your preferred balance between the solitary and the communal, between privacy and solidarity.
1) You can be private and just read the blog and use the exercises, practices, and quotes on your own.
or
2) If you are more extroverted and communal or in need of companions on your retreat, you can share your thoughts, experiences, and questions via the comments function on the blog and engage in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator.
Either way, in your participation on the blog, silent or speaking, you must respond respectfully to others and observe basic confidentiality about participants sharing of experiences and opinions: it's fine for you to say to people outside the retreat "someone in a group I'm in mentioned [issue, insight, dilemma]" but not the name or identifying characteristics of the person or the story.
This online retreat is meant to help you find time and opportunity to breathe and pause in your busy life, but not to make you feel guilty when you struggle to do so. Begin where you are, not where you "ought to be."
Facilitator
Jane Redmont, author of two books, When in Doubt, Sing: Prayer in Daily Life, Generous Lives: American Catholic Women Today, and more than 100 articles, is a spiritual director, retreat leader, pastoral worker, and theologian. Jane has given workshops on "Prayer in Our Busy Lives" and on "Spiritual Practices for the Busy, the Harried, and the Overcommitted" as well as lectures, retreats, and workshops on praying with anger and depression; intercessory prayer; using body, breath, and voice in prayer and meditation; ecological spirituality; prayer and the work of justice; Jewish insights for Christians; Sabbath and time; Buddhist and Christian insights on anger; and Christian feminist spirituality, around the U.S. She has also taught full courses on the contemplative life and on prayer at the undergraduate and seminary/graduate levels.
Jane was active in ecumenical healing services in communities affected by AIDS during the 1980s and 1990s, led weekly prayer services for peace in the early 2000s, and more recently facilitated weekly Centering Prayer and Taizé services. A U.S. American raised in France, Jane was educated at the Lycée de Sèvres, Oberlin College, Harvard Divinity School, and the Graduate Theological Union; she is an Episcopalian (Anglican) shaped by Catholic contemplative and social justice traditions, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist family roots, and the study of yoga and Buddhist (especially Zen) meditation.
