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Forward to a friend.
Like us on Facebook.
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Love is here!
We like to know how the experience was for our guests of the Christine Center, so we ask you to fill out a short survey after their retreats. Your responses on the numerical scales help us know what we’re doing well and what we can do better, but your comments are often the most enlightening. I like to post them to the
this page
on our website. This past week, one survey jumped out at me. Proving again that brevity is the soul of eloquence it read, “Love is here!”
Those three words, so beautiful and profound, succinctly convey the essence of the Christine Center. A the heart of all we do—from spiritual deepening retreats, to yoga retreats, meditating, praying, cooking, cleaning, gardening, repairing, building, and so much more—is love. Our daily activities, as humble as they may seem or as routine as they sometimes feel, are expressions of love. The atmosphere of serenity and harmony you find here flows from a number of springs, but one of the main sources is the love of the Christine Center staff. They love this place. They love its mission. They love each other as family. Much of what we feel here is born in the hearts of those who work here. As a nonprofit organization, this staff is our chief asset.
Meanwhile, out there, love seems forgotten. There is a toxic culture that prizes putting ourselves before others, even seeing others as incompatible with ourselves. In that culture, tough is valued over tender, getting over giving, dominance over friendship, being heard over hearing, and conflict over cooperation. Resentment, anger, and rage dominate our national discourse. Our news and entertainment industries peddle discord—as one ESPN vice president was quoted as saying, “Polarization sells.” A current fad promotes focusing on ourselves as the “answer,” but when I look at the world around us, I cannot conclude that our problems arise from us caring too little for ourselves and too much for each other. I look around me and I think, “Thank God for places like the Christine Center and for people like those who serve here with love.”
My intention, my hope, my prayer is that I will, as the executive director, help nurture that love. I am committed to strengthening the Christine Center’s role as a refuge of love and enhancing its role as a beacon of love. The popular song from 1965 rings in my ears: “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.” It still rings true. Maybe, together, you and the Christine Center can add to the love that’s in such short supply.
It's something to ponder, anyway, as I peer through the steam of my morning coffee.
Russell King, executive director
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“…Have you ever tried to enter the long black branches of other lives —
tried to imagine what the crisp fringes, full of honey, hanging
from the branches of the young locust trees, in early morning, feel like….”
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Living Breath – Qi Gong and Meditation
July 6 – 8 (Friday-Sunday)
With Trish Johnson and Paul Stern
Tuition: $175, Early bird rate $150 before June 6th, plus meals and lodging
This meditation and qi gong retreat will use breath, through movement and stillness, as the thread to connect more deeply and intimately with ourselves and our daily lives. This connection to breath brings us to the present moment of our life and offers the opportunity to be here with ourselves, others and all of our experiences. It nurtures us to get out of our heads and into the life right in front of us as it unfolds.
Meditation practice, in the style of Zen, will include both sitting and walking practices and will take place both indoors and outdoors at the beautiful Christine Center. Guided meditation practices will be conducted at the beginning of this retreat, and throughout, and so no prior experience is necessary.
Qi gong is one of the five branches of Traditional Chinese Medicine and an integrated body-mind practice that promotes balance and wellness in a holistic manner. It offers a kind of kinesthetic mantra of practice through which we are able to embody our presence. The practices within this retreat will familiarize participants with integrated breath/movement practices suitable for both experienced practitioners as well as beginners.
Learn More
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“…Who will behold the inner chamber who has not observed
with admiration, even with rapture, the outer stone?
Well, there is time left —
fields everywhere invite you into them...”
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Prayer by Heart and Hands: a retreat with rosaries and prayer beads
July 6 – 8 (Friday-Sunday)
With Gabriele Uhlein and Anastasia Dzenowgis
Tuition sliding scale: $150 – $250, plus meals and lodging, and $15 materials fee
Bring your favorite beads to pray! Bring your hands to string new ones! Since earliest times, people have used pebbles or strings of knots or beads on a cord to assist in prayer. Every major religious tradition uses some form of bead-fingering as a contemplative practice. This retreat is specially designed for contemplative prayer together, and the fun of creating beauty. We will be inspired by the rosary and beads from many faiths. Instruction and materials will be available to string a new personal set of beads. Bead by bead, we will tell stories, share our experience and most importantly, join our hearts and hands together in the practice of prayer and intercession.
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“…And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away
from wherever you are, to look for your soul?
Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk…”
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Yoga Nidra: A Day of Deep Relaxation
July 9 – 10 (Monday–Tuesday)
With Tracy Hart, CYT
Tuition: $95, plus meals and lodging
Enjoy 24 hours of Restoration and Rejuvenation through the easiest yoga practice of all – simple, deep, natural rest! The Christine Center welcomes you to a monthly day designated for health, well-being, and ease. Each month, one of our featured instructors will offer a mid-week Yoga Nidra based program designed to help you experience quiet clarity and calm from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Join us as we take a 24 hour “time out” from our busy lives to unwind one serene breath at a time. You may even choose to extend your stay and create your own customized personal retreat. Our woodland sanctuary awaits you!
Learn More
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“…To sit down, like a weed among weeds, and rustle in the wind!
Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?
While the soul, after all, is only a window, and the opening of the window no more difficult than the wakening from a little sleep…”
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Mindfulness & Self-Compassion
July 19 – 20 (Thursday-Friday)
with
Barbara Wulf
Tuition: $95, plus meals and lodging
Cultivating Mindfulness One Breath at a Time
Mindfulness can shift our experience, expand our awareness, and open us up to new approaches to life. In this workshop, learn techniques for bringing awareness and balance into your life while cultivating a sense of overall calm. Sessions include Sitting Meditation, Loving Kindness Meditation, Gentle Mindful Movement, Walking Meditation (outside), and Mindful Rest Yoga, a form of deep, restful yogic sleep.
There will be group dialogue and time to commune with nature in the peaceful setting of the Christine Center grounds.
Learn More
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“…Only last week I went out among the thorns and said
to the wild roses:
deny me not,
but suffer my devotion.
Then, all afternoon, I sat among them…”
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Intuitive Painting: The Joy of Creativity in a Judgement-Free Zone!
July 19 – 22 (Thursday-Sunday)
Daily 10 am – 5:00 pm
With S. Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, PhD
Tuition: $50 a day / $25 for half days (all materials included), plus meals and lodging.
Commuters are welcome: bring a bag lunch or purchase a vegetarian meal for $16.
About the Program
No previous art skill is required!
If you are an artist, here is a chance to dare yourself to stretch into fresh creative possibility! Just bring your willingness to deepen insight and to strengthen intuition in a fun and supportive community of happy painters! (Come with a friend!) Bring a sense of play, adventure and openness! Each day includes two creativity and intuition sessions with S. Gabe and an evening conversation circle. Dare to enter a marvelous “judgement-free zone” for freeing soul, breaking old patterns and discovering fresh creative possibilities. Just wait till you see the studio walls!
Learn More
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“…A woman standing in the weeds.
A small boat flounders in the deep waves, and what’s coming next
is coming with its own heave and grace…”
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The Compassionate Heart
July 20 – 22 (Friday-Sunday)
With Henrita Frost, SSND and Johanna Seubert, FSPA
Tuition: $95, plus meals and lodging.
Discover the power of the human heart for compassion. Empowered by the practice of Loving Kindness Meditation allow yourself to engage in a journey with compassion. Sense it flowing from your experience of self-compassion and moving to embracing all beings and the environment with an all-inclusive loving kindness – omitting none, as we offer healing to the Global Community.
Finally, we will take time together to weave compassionate actions. Surprise yourself with your capacity for love and compassion.
Reflections about
The Charter for Compassion International
will aid us as we journey with compassion.
Learn More
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“…Meanwhile, once in a while, I have chanced, among the quick things, upon the immutable.
What more could one ask…”
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Sound and Silence
July 20 – 22 (Friday-Sunday)
With Cecilia Corcoran, FSPA, PhD (right) and Wendy Kohlhaas, ICS, CSAC, LPN
Tuition: $150, plus meals and lodging
Two practices based on praying from the heart frame this retreat. Sounds produced by gemstone crystal and Tibetan bowls help purify and raise the vibration of the body. The pure sound helps you release aches and tensions of a lifetime. Sacred singing, mantras, toning and giving voice can move us toward higher states of well-being. Learn and practice simple chants to pray when there are no words. Each tone makes its journey into deep places within the soul and aligns us with divine harmony.
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“…And I would touch the faces of the daises,
and I would bow down
to think about it. That was then, which hasn’t ended yet…”
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Ancestral Impressions: Exploring Your Ancestry through Creativity, Imagery, and Intuition
July 23 – 26 (Monday-Thursday)
With Audrey Chowdhury
Tuition: $375 (includes all materials for creating mandalas and collages), plus meals and lodging
Even if you know nothing about them, your ancestors are a tremendous resource for you, and they are just waiting for you to ask them for guidance and information about who and where you come from. Through my work as an art therapist and facilitator, I have been surprised and delighted to find that our ancestors love to speak to us through creative processes. In this workshop experience, we will play with ways to get in touch with those that came before us. We will be tapping into this great well of wisdom and experience through processes that use your creative imagination. We will travel to the ancestral realm using guided imagery, SoulCollage®, mandala creating, intuitive art processes and intuitive writing. You will learn about the four realms of ancestral memory and explore your heritage through these portals. We will take movement breaks to help integrate our experience and have time to take advantage of the beautiful natural surroundings at the Christine Center.
Learn More
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“…Now the sun begins to swing down. Under the peach-light,
I cross the fields and the dunes, I follow the ocean’s edge...”
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Heart-Light and Soul: A Weekend of Practice and Experience in Christian Meditation
July 27 – 29 (Friday-Sunday)
With Annie Lea and Gabriele Uhlein
Tuition sliding scale: $150 – $200, plus meals and lodging
Hosted by Annie Lea, join Gabriele Uhlein as we discover the depth and brilliance of the mind of Christ and the wide and welcoming heart of God. Savor sanctuary stillness, encounter Divine Love and experience the ways of prayer and meditation known to most Western saints and mystics. With ample instruction and conversation, this retreat is ideal for all levels of experience, and for those wanting to explore a Christian meditation tradition. Drawing on the Christ lineage of contemplation and union with God through direct, centuries-old spiritual practices, we’ll meditate together in simple awareness and deep listening. Individual spiritual guidance is also available for an additional donation. Commuters are welcome.
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“…I climb, I backtrack.
I float.
I ramble my way home…”
– Have you ever tried to enter the long black branches, by Mary Oliver
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Upside Down: Exploring Perspective through Writing and Yoga
July 29 – August 2 (Sunday-Thursday)
With Joanne Nelson and Sabre Page
Tuition: $400, Early bird rate: $350 until June 29th, plus meals and lodging
Through yoga we open ourselves to possibility. Our bodies stretch and grow strong, our spirits are deepened, and our minds relax and renew. When the body, spirit, and mind are united, amazing things happen. Integrating writing experiences with a yoga practice enriches and enlivens the opportunities for creative growth.
Looking at everything in a new way—right side up, upside down, or sideways will be our theme. We will practice a variety of yoga poses and writing techniques designed to help us view ourselves and our writing from new perspectives. Combining these modalities allows the inner and outer world to be explored through a different lens as we experiment, play, deepen, and grow.
Whether you are a seasoned yogi and writer, or just beginning to explore, you will grow from from this innovative workshop filled with techniques that can be applied to all levels of practice and all genres of writing. Time will be available for writing in silence as well as for optional sharing in a safe and supportive community.
Participants will return home with a greater awareness of how writing enhances a yoga practice as well as how a yoga practice enhances creativity.
Learn More
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We are eternally grateful for your donations!
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Or mail your gift to
The Christine Center W8303 Mann Road Willard, WI 54493
Thank you for your support!
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