Settle your spirit, find refuge in community, and explore how we can use curiosity to navigate uncertainty in our lives and worlds.

Held in the deeply restorative environs of Red Clover Ranch in the Driftless region of Wisconsin, this retreat will ignite your sense of possibility, curiosity, and WONDER through guided meditation, tarot discovery, reflective writing, and tactile imaginative practices. Each day includes three professionally and lovingly prepared locally sourced meals, a balanced array of structured activities and solo reflection time, and an after-dinner bonfire.

Questions we’ll explore: How can we connect deeply with ourselves, and with each other? How can we resource ourselves so that we can resource our communities? How can a sense of curiosity and wonder bolster and guide us as we move through periods of transition and uncertainty?

Things we believe: Without curiosity there is no space for empathy. Without space for empathy, there is no room to move, to evolve, to connect. Without connection, there is no hope. Hope, curiosity, and inquiry are distinct threats to systems of oppression. This makes wondering a necessary and revolutionary act.

This retreat is an opportunity to spend time in caring community with people united in a shared purpose: to engage more deeply with the incredible gift that is our lives, and in that way move more powerfully through a world that so badly needs us here, needs us loving ourselves and each other, needs us capable and awake and alive. No experience with meditation, tarot, or writing is required! We’ll walk you through it every step of the way.

Through GUIDED MEDITATION, we’ll quiet our minds and expand our field of thought.
Through STRUCTURED TAROT PRACTICE, we’ll draw on intuition to explore vast and vibrant possibilities.
Through REFLECTIVE WRITING, we’ll use gentle inquiry to get beneath the surface and imagine new paths forward.
Through TACTILE IMAGINATIVE PRACTICES, we’ll get our hands dirty and make ephemeral art that comes from and returns to the land.

Among all of that, we will rest. We will connect with ourselves, each other, and the land. We will wander, wonder, and let ourselves be fed by the trees and fields, locally sourced food, and caring community. 

You can expect:
* guided meditations
* facilitated tarot discovery
* reflective writing 
* tactile imaginative practices 
* connection with the natural surroundings
* delicious, professionally prepared local food
* space for rest and connection with self and others

Come wonder with us. Your life deserves it.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT WONDER•ING RETREATS:

“The location was magic, the balance of silence, guidance, and free time was excellent, food was superb, facilitators were awesome, and the combination of individuals who participated was really special.”

”This retreat is time to reset and reconnect with yourself. It's a dedicated time and space to be with your thoughts and to also help guide you back to them. There is lots of room to take what you need and to leave what you don't. Space to heal/grow and to imagine what that healing/growing can look like.”

“WONDER•ING is an incredible combination of peace, solitude, silence, nurture, and connection. Every human I know deserves this experience.”

“I loved the ability to be still and quiet, then creative and social. It felt like a true balance. I also loved the freedom we had to take a break if needed. I was able to take the space to simply be --- and in that playfulness, I found the ability for deep feeling and healing. I felt nurtured by the space and the food. And I actually made connections that didn't feel small-talky (I'm terrible at small talk) or forced. They were real and I felt safe. The shared purposes helped create sweet connections that I'll remember forever.”

“Just absolutely magic. Everything I needed but didn’t know I needed.”

“I feel passion again for the first time in three years. I got burnt out in my last two career iterations, and I've felt stuck. This retreat helped me shake off the dust to find motivation again. I honestly didn't think it was possible, but I can cry again and feel passion about ideas again.”

Lindsey Dorr-Niro is a transdisciplinary artist and educator. She received her MFA from The Yale School of Art and BFA from The University of Wisconsin-Madison, and currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has studied and practiced within the Gelugpa school of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism since 2009 and taught meditation since completing her 300-hour yoga teacher training with the Yoga Studies Institute in 2011. Her meditation studies include work with the Diamond Mountain, Tara Mandala, and DharmaOcean lineages. Her focus is on somatically embodied practice, with trainings cultivated through Awakening the Body, Awakening the Heart, and The Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness. She is currently studying with Ralph De La Rosa, whose work bridges Tibetan Buddhist meditation/mindfulness practice with Internal Family Systems, attachment theory, and somatic experiencing to address and heal trauma. 

Marty McConnell provides vital coaching and consulting services to people and organizations, supporting them in being planful, proactive, and powerful in building the lives and worlds they envision. She is the author of when they say you can’t go home again, what they mean is you were never there, winner of the 2017 Michael Waters Poetry Prize; her first full-length collection, wine for a shotgun, received the Silver Medal in the Independent Publishers Awards, and was a finalist for both the Audre Lorde Award and Lambda Literary Awards. She is the author Gathering Voices: Creating a Community-Based Poetry Workshop (Yes Yes Books, 2018), and the co-creator and co-editor of underbelly, a web site focused on the art and magic of poetry revision. In her work with organizations, groups, and individuals, she utilizes an inquiry-based approach grounded in curiosity, a somatic approach to intuition, and an unshakeable belief that the answers we seek lie within our brilliant ultimate selves.

Learn more about Lindsey here and here, and more about Marty here and here. 

PRICING & LODGING

Fee includes all WONDER•ING activities, four nights of lodging, all locally sourced meals, welcome cocktail/mocktail, all-day coffee and tea service, and use of the on-site sauna.

Both single and shared room options are available in the beautiful Red Clover cabins:
* Single (unshared) room: $2,000
* Shared room: $1,500
* Sleeping nook in the bathhouse: $1,300

Explore the Ranch and cabins here — photos are also available on the registration form.

Lodging will be assigned as registration is received, so early registration is encouraged!

Questions? Email marty@vitalcoachings.com.