Coming Back to Life:

Gratitude, Grief & Wonder
in Wild Nature

July 20, 2024

Guided by Gene Dilworth and Lauren Golten

at Wild Tinaja Ridge
near Lyons, CO

Join us for this daylong introduction to the profound and powerful Work that Reconnects. This work centers around a spiral of:

✦ coming from gratitude
✦ honoring our pain for the world
✦ seeing with new eyes
✦ and going forth with renewed energy and inspiration.

In these profoundly challenging times, we gather to turn courageously toward our pain, grief and despair for the world, while staying deeply grounded in connection with wild nature and a supportive human community.

Allowing ourselves to be informed by such difficult – and utterly natural – emotional responses to change and uncertainty, we can find our way to move forward in the world with renewed appreciation, interconnection, and inspiration.

In almost every realm of life, we are experiencing multiple, sustained, systemic disruption, including but not limited to ecological collapse and climate chaos, social and political division, conflict and war. The time is ripe to gather together to collectively acknowledge the extraordinarily challenging times we are living in. 

In order to see with new eyes, and to move forward with active hope and empowered action, we first pause to give our full presence and compassionate attention to the pain and difficulty we are experiencing in the world now. And just as essentially, we turn our gaze toward the wonder of what is beautiful, what we are grateful for, and what we love.  In wild nature, in embodied relationship with this more-than-human world, we find ways to access the inner resources and inspiration we need to actively engage with an uncertain future — to come back to life with vitality and resilience.

Wisdom traditions from around the world teach us that in the very depths of our sorrow lie the seeds of new life. Fortunately there are teachings, maps and practices that are especially helpful in such times. We have been particularly inspired by the Work that Reconnects — a set of group practices (created by Joanna Macy and others) that are designed to support us to be with and move through our grief and despair to a place of embodied, active hope. We are privileged and grateful to offer these teachings and practices at Tinaja Ridge.

“The Work that Reconnects helps people
discover and experience their innate connections
with each other and the self-healing powers of the web of life,
transforming despair and overwhelm into inspired, collaborative action.”
~Joanna Macy

Program details:

• DATE: Saturday, July 20

• TIME: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

• LOCATION: Wild Tinaja Ridge, on private land northwest of Lyons, CO (15 mins drive from Lyons; 35-40 mins from Boulder)

• GROUP SIZE: Our group will be limited to 10 participants.

• OUTDOOR EXPERIENCE: We aim be outdoors the full day, rain or shine!  (Indoor bathroom facilities available. We have a tipi for shelter in inclement weather.)

Group size is limited, so sign up today!

Scroll down for registration info.

Your guides:

Gene Dilworth, MA: Gene is dedicated to the project of rewilding the human spirit as an essential dimension of being fully alive and fully human in these challenging times. By nurturing meaningful relationship with the more-than-human world and facilitating deep inquiry into the mystery of one’s true nature, he supports individuals to discover, re-member and live from the center of their soul-rooted sense of belonging to the world. With degrees in ecology and ecopsychology, Gene has been teaching and guiding groups and mentoring individuals in transformative nature-based experiences for over 30 years. He currently guides wilderness retreats for Animas Valley Institute and is founder of the Wild Heart Center for Nature & Psyche.

Lauren Golten MS, MA, LPC: Lauren is a nature-based therapist and a group facilitator drawing upon her extensive training and experience with the Wild Mind model of Animas Valley Institute, the Work That Reconnects, and Matrix Leadership Institute. She holds masters degrees in Field Biology and Wilderness Therapy. Lauren’s 20-year practice and study of meditation and mindfulness, and her life-long love of the natural world, are core to her work as a therapist and facilitator. She sees clients and leads nature-based programs at her home-place of Wild Tinaja Ridge near Lyons, CO.

Coming Back to Life:
Gratitude, Grief & Wonder
in Wild Nature

Saturday, July 20
9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Sliding scale fee: $140 – $95

We invite those of you who have the financial means to pay at the upper end of the scale. This helps make it possible for us to make our programs available and affordable to all who would like to participate. If financial hardship is a barrier to your participation, and you really want to be here, please contact us to inquire about other options.

REGISTRATION

To register, please send a brief email to Lauren expressing your interest, and use one of the payment methods below.

• Venmo to @Gene-Dilworth (preferred)
• PayPal to genedilworth @ gmail.com
• Check (contact us for mailing address)

If you have any questions or need more info, please contact us.