Dear friends,
Here are two reviews from a retreat held at our community at the end of October. May they offer inspiration and hope.
Maddie's reflections:
Weeks after my time with the sweet and fierce
humans at the Rainforest Lab, my heart is still speaking in the potent
tongue that it found in the warm embrace of conversations and
interactions over the four-day retreat.
My friend and I first arrived to the farm when the sun had set and were
immediately welcomed with a savory soup made from the body of Little
Foot, a goat who had recently crossed over, in a sweet two-story home
where the communal kitchen lived. We were told that this home, as well
as every land structure on the farm, was hand-built by various members
and that we were very off-grid, meaning no electricity whatsoever. I
swayed along with the flicker of the candle, fulfilled by the
remembrance of a time before bright lights after the sun had set. My
friend and I were guided to the wigwam where we set up sleeping bags on a
ginormous mattress and dozed off to the rain and the spiders and the
gratitude of nourished stomaches.
We began each morning in circle, learning about one another’s needs as
we expressed ways in which we feel respected and safe and trusting. This
exercise made me feel seen and understood. It also offered the chance
to practice empathy (a big learning curve for me!) and become conscious
of my words and actions so that I could honor the ways that these humans
felt respected and safe and trusting. We finished every evening with a
mourning and celebration circle, honoring and being seen for the grief
and joy dancing within all of us.
Throughout the days, we focused on individual and shared relationships
to broken systems in our world. We were able to get very honest and raw
with our hurt and fury about the current state of these systems and hold
one another as we dove deep into our individual and collective trauma. I
had the opportunity to participate in an exercise with one of the
members, Natalie, which included walking through my current trauma and
linking it back to the child version of myself and embracing that child.
In another exercise, I sat in circle with three other humans and we
went around and shared our dreams for the future and held one another in
the vulnerability of that. We finished the retreat with a ritual where
half the participants acted as the seventh generation and the other half
acted as the current generation. The dialogue that occurred affirmed
our decisions as members of the retreat to carve out a radical and
compassionate existence and gave strength to create human and natural
resources to continue on paths that dismantle and disrupt the status
quo.
The takeaway from this retreat is that the community of Rainforest Lab
is passionate about creating a revolutionary world, one that practices
non-violent communication and co-existing with the natural rhythms of
the earth. This is a community of humans who are so self-aware and
present for one another and the animals of the land and only want to
offer their wisdom and courage to anyone and everyone. I am so grateful
for the walks through the woods, collecting willow branches to weave,
singing songs in feral voices over meed and candlelight, for the
delicious goat milk with cups of tea, and for bravery to reveal the
truth about unjust systems. I’m so grateful for the introduction to
non-violent communication and for the gift to express my feelings and
needs clearly as I venture onward into a life of healing and helping and
loving and learning. I’ve heard rumors about a Permaculture class
offered on the land next summer and I am there with bells on to the next
Rainforest Lab retreat.
Thank you, Morning! Thank you, Natalie! Thank you, Squirrel! Thank you,
Kevin! I love you all! You were wonderful hosts and co-collaborators!
From Kristina:
The four days on the Bogachiel during the
retreat inspired all of the beauty and rawness of radical aliveness. I
found myself feeling so supported in getting touch with my authenticity
and all of the associated pain and purpose.
The sources of support were two-fold as well as interconnected. There
was the unique container of the retreat, which facilitated participants
in imagining how our gifts may be applied towards social transformation,
specifically in rethinking the systems that we see as not working
towards collective wellbeing. A potent piece for me in this
transformation were the conversations that gave me a sense of shared
reality in critically viewing oppressive systems; the healing that can
be accessed through actively not consenting to systemic violence and
collaborating on how to live in more life-serving ways.
By the end of the retreat, I had such a strong feeling of revitalization
and inspiration for steps going forward. I've come away with a clearer
understanding of how I'd like to show up in the world and actionable
steps towards connecting with this purpose. I attribute much of this to
the intentional container held during the retreat, but the connected
piece is the inspiration I receive from the mere existence of this
community in the rainforest. The world feels like a safer, more
connective place knowing that this community is existing in it doing the
work that they do. With every visit, I am inspired by what I see as a
fierce commitment to living out values of non-violence, sustainability,
and connection. To me, there is immense beauty in a group of people
gathering in support of each other's healing and then taking those inner
resources and touching so deeply anyone who could benefit from that
restorative touch as I have.
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