Seeding the Dream: three day retreat

May 9th to 11th, 2014

Click on poster to see full sized version. It’s quite lovely.

The Dream

We are creating and remembering sane, just, and beautiful ways to live on our Earth, to be at peace with ourselves, and to take action with each other. This manifests with every conscious move we make to treat our resources as the gifts they are. This dream comes alive with each homegrown sweetpea we savor, with every song we share. We live simply, with a profound embodied respect for our land, the landscape of our own bodies, our water, our air, our sun, our creativity and community, and our purpose.

We invite you to join us in this dream. Spend three days living simply in the healing sandstone landscape of Ampersand. Experience building with earth, cooking with the sun, and outdoor showers that feed the garden. You are invited to share your stories, visions, and practices to cultivate the connection that serves us all to serve the world. Join us in a learning celebration of the incredible potential of the collective to create positive changes in our local and global communities.

Food
Hearty vegetarian meals will be provided. We will use Ampersand’s solar cookers to prepare some of our food.

Lodging
We have two small strawbale cottages, a 16 foot yurt and a 20 foot tipi available for shared housing. Or bring your own tent for more private sleeping quarters. These are offered on a first come first served basis. As soon as you send in your registration for the retreat, you can reserve your place of choice.

Retreat Fee
We are pleased to be able to offer this retreat at the low price of $275. This is due to a grant from the McCune Foundation as well as funds from another private donor.

Facilitators and Instructors

Bobbe Besold’s primary focus is to create art for Earth’s sake, in part by engaging, educating and collaborating with community. In 2010, she was part of the core team that created Flash Flood in the Santa Fe River for 350.org. Her art and design called “Watershed” was cast into concrete walls for a pedestrian underpass for the City of Santa Fe, that opened to the public in 2012. She is currently working in collaboration with artists Valerie Martinez and Dominique Mazeaud, on the community engagement project Rivers Run Through Us: to generate understanding, through art and story about the Santa Fe River. Besold has over 35 years of experience in all art media. www.bobbebesold.com

Mark Jensen is a Santa Fe based herbalist, body worker, chiropractor, Deep Ecology instructor, and has been active in community and earth based ceremony for over 25 years. Jensen will be sharing an introduction to Qigong as a land based practice.

Madi Sato will offer a vocal meditation practice that explores sacred music from around the globe in a systematic approach to sound healing. Through a unique integration of Eastern and Western musical and spiritual traditions, ancient wisdom is brought into a relevant, modern context. Class sessions travel through primordial seed syllables, indigenous medicine melodies, Indian ragas, Tibetan mantras, and more. Madi Sato leads participants through a vocal process of breathing, tuning, chanting, and even improvisation that engenders heightened consciousness and personal liberation. www.madisato.com

Amanda Bramble’s bio is here.

Andy Bramble’s bio is here.

This retreat will be an opportunity to break away from your regular routine, the face pace of life’s responsibilities. We will be spending a lot of time outdoors during this especially pleasant time of year. We do have running rainwater and photovoltaic electricity, and we use these resources with great care and frugality. Cell phone service is spotty but you can often get a signal when you climb one of our hills. Phone service will always be available for emergencies and messages.

Participants can expect to experience

Building with earth! We will be plastering walls with our local resources using a wattle and daub technique. All physical ability levels are welcome.
Learning to read the land by identifying flood patterns and vegetative response
An introduction to Qigong as a land based practice
Creating a collaborative earth plaster based relief sculpture
a vocal meditation practice that explores breathing, tuning, and improvisation
Time to be on the land, reflect, and decompress
Creative exploration woven through our time together

Please contact us with any questions or to register at amanda@ampersandproject.org