Therese and Tere after a Rite-of-Passage ceremony for a group of girls from Journeys
2015 was a rich and wonderful year for Tere and I! Here at the Groves, we were blessed with hundreds of women and men who joined us for our retreats, ceremonies and circles; hosted hundreds of Airbnb guests who enjoyed the healing quality of our guest yurts; and shared this land, co-creating “community” with 7 men and women who live as residents here. We also hosted hundreds of tree-climbers who went up in the canopy with Nico Honeylion and other guides from AdventureTerra and two groups of girls from Rite of Passage Journeys. With Katey and Chris who live here at Sacred Groves. we got a small flock of chickens, built a coop and chicken yard, grew flowers, veggies and herbs in our gardens, culled fire-wood from the woods and grew grass in the meadows. This land holds us in a thousand beautiful ways, supports us financially and energetically, and feeds our souls with beauty….blessing us hundred-fold!. Life is GOOD
We participated in events and opportunities away from the Groves as well: offering a Family Camp and Spirit’h’Soul Quests at Ekone Ranch, participating in a “Becoming a Conscious Elder” series offered by Rite of Passage Journeys and once again joining our favorite women’s camps– Womens Summer Solstice and Womans Way LongDance. We are involved in the board and community at Ekone Ranch and participated in Charlene Ray’s Living and Dying Quest there as well. Therese offered a 2 day Compassionate Listening training at TACID in Tacoma, and spent 4 days with Tami Lynn Kent refreshing her skills in Holistic Pelvic Care.
In addition to all this…..we spent time with dear friends and family (including our beloved grandson), went camping together, and spent some days in silence and retreat to renew our connection with Great Spirit-Great Mystery. Its a beauty-way life and we are so grateful to be living the dream.
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO SUPPORTED US WITH YOUR LOVE, YOUR DONATIONS, YOUR PRAYERS and WELL-WISHES! May the time you spent here at the Groves continue to bless you in 100 beautiful ways!
As 2014 winds to completion, Tere and I have been reflecting on the many blessings in the form of all the women and men (and children too) who showed up at the Groves over this past year, supporting our work and our vision! Without all of you, we would not be realizing our dream of sharing this land, our sweet structures and the medicine of our healing ceremonies. We feel so blessed in our lives here at the Groves with so much beauty, abundance, love, and connection. The many guests who come here each bring a special gift for us and for the land.
The ceremonies and circles we host have drawn many wonderful folks this past year. We continue to be touched and awed by the healing magic of sitting in sacred circle! Whether the connection is a one-time event that someone happens to drop by for, or takes place over the course of months (and years!) in an ongoing group, it is our pleasure and deep honor to be sacred witness to each person’s unfolding journey.
Our B n’ B continues to thrive, drawing a steady stream of folks from all over the country ( and the world!) who stay with us for a night or two, a week or two. People find us through our Airbnb site, our Sacred Groves website or through the ephemeral web that ‘calls’ folks to our little sanctuary. From one guest: “You are both such lovely stewards of this little piece of Earth. Thank you for tending to it and others so well. Your care and reverence is palpable.” When folks leave notes like this, we are humbled – and we say: this Land is the REAL healing agent here! And we are so blessed to call this place Home.
We’ve enjoyed opening the Groves up to outside groups. For the 14th year in a row, Rite of Passage Journeys brought girls groups to the Groves! Aleen (Dawn Whirlwind) and Templedogs brought the “Origin Teachings of The Delicate Lodge” at 4 week-end retreats at the Groves this year. In addition, we hosted a Bikeworks staff retreat, Vickie Dodd’s Sound Healing, Port Townsend ‘Global Visionaries’, Amy Jo Goodman’s “Healing Sexual Trauma” Retreat and a few others. This has brought many folks here who might otherwise have never visited. And, We feel so blessed that wonderful teachers and teachings like these are drawn to the magic of our place here.
The current crop of full-time residents here at the Groves is a group of wonderful young adults that we are delighted to share the land with! Chris and Katey are holding forth in the Log Cabin – creating wonderful art (they’re both artists), and co-creating a little community of friends transplanted from Michigan plus new friends gathered from the Pacific Northwest. Their midwest can-do, helpful spirit is evident in the little ways (e.g.trail clipping) and in larger ways too. We’re so grateful for their efforts in the gardens and with our guests when we’re away. Oh – and we really really like them too!!
Did we mention the children yet? Our grandson Tavi and the twins Liam and Gigi who were born when their parents were living here at the Groves have been such a delight for us….these children enliven us with their laughter and their play and we’re always happy to welcome them (and their parents) for a visit.
As you can see…..there is much to be grateful for and we end the year with a sweet sense of satisfaction, feeling awash in blessings as we live our beautiful life here at Sacred Groves! So we sign off for now, wishing all of you a beautiful holiday season full with good food, loving friends and family, a sense of peace and contentment. HAPPY 2015 and we do hope to see you here for a visit sometime!
Love
Therese and Tere
2014 has arrived in a flurry of ceremonies and family gatherings. We feel blessed to spend these holy-days and holidays with open-hearted women and men, sharing good food, prayers and songs. In the nick of time, we got our 2014 calendar laid out, continuing our juicy array of eclectic offerings. Below is an overview. Hope to see you this year for more heart-warming and spirit-enlivening connections!
Special Events in 2014
Open to women and men.
Grief Ritual Retreat March 1-2, Nov 1-2
Compassionate Listening Training–March 15 and April 19; November 22-23
Spirit Quests & Nature Retreat at Ekone Ranch–Memorial Day Week-end and Labor Day Week-end
Seasons-Change Sweatlodges –March 22, Oct 4.
WOMENS MYSTERIES SCHOOL
Monthly “Women’s Days” at the Groves including…... Earth Mothers Circle–2nd Saturday 10:30am-4pm. Make a year-long commitment to show up monthly, connecting to a group of sisters and the 13 Original Clan Mothers. January is start-up! Read more here.
Women’s Red Tent –Held on the Friday eve before the Earth Mothers Circle, 6-10pm. An exploration of our ‘Wild Feminine’ inner landscape, inspired by Tami Lynn Kent’s book.
Apprentices Circle Saturday evening after the Earth Mothers group. For women who want to learn from Tere and Therese about facilitating women’s ceremonies and circles. Contact Therese for more info
Women’s Rite for Healing and Empowerment
June 7-8
This week-end offers a healing opportunity for women of all ages who did not experience a Rite of Passage ceremony in adolescence.
Holistic Pelvic Care
Private appointments with Therese. This modality is effective in the re-connection of mind-heart with the pelvic bowl so as to live the full creative potential of being a juicy woman! Read more here.
Thanksgiving Greetings
To the many friends & beloveds
of Sacred Groves!
We wanted to take this opportunity to give thanks to all who have contributed to the Groves this past year in a variety of ways–money, love, food, hands-on help, and thoughtful, heart-felt words of support for our work here! Tere and I feel so blessed by this life we live here in these beautiful, magical Groves. We get so much delight by sharing this land with all of you, seeing and hearing how it touches you, opens your hearts, helps you feel connected and nurtured in many ways. Our lives seem to be a perfect balance of giving and receiving with our many guests. Each day we look at each other and say: “Aren’t we blessed to be living this amazing and beautiful life!?!”
2013 saw an increase in our Bed’n’Breakfast business, a steady stream of short-stay visitors who travel from near and far looking for connection to nature and inner peace in our sweet yurtlettes. Tere has done an excellent job managing the guest-lodging business. Her warm smile and charming ways make everyone feel personally welcomed and well taken care of.
The ceremonies, retreats and circles we host have also flourished in 2013. The addition of a monthly Women’s Red Tent and an Apprentice’s Circle (for women who would like to lead women’s groups themselves) have resulted in a once-monthly lively week-end gathering for many women. The sense of sisterhood has been deeply healing. We also continue to host gatherings that welcome both men and women: sweatlodges, Grief Retreat, Compassionate Listening, Season’s Change rituals, Spirit Quests and the Red Cedar Circle. In 2014 we will continue all of these.
We have also had several wonderful renters living here at Sacred Groves. Arnel Leyva enjoyed the log cabin for many months; Kaiah Hooper and Max Gordon are currently enjoying its charm and cozy-ness. We’ve been blessed by others too: Katie McDonald who hosted the B’n’B several times earlier this year when we were away; Nico Chmielewski who re-established some new native plants on the grounds here and built a magical gate; Matthew Reiss and Jenna Kuczynski who showed us how to identify chantrelles!
Thérèse and Tere continue to offer their services and leadership to groups outside of the Groves as well: Thérèse is on the board of the Sacred Earth Foundation, is on the leadership team for the Women’s Summer Solstice event, and she and Tere are actively involved in Women’s Way Red Lodge and LongDance. It is a rich and interconnected life for sure!
There is more we could report about as there is rarely a dull day around Sacred Groves! But enough is enough. In closure, we look forward to you visiting in 2014; know that all of you who visit become a part of our Sacred Groves family; we send you prayers of gratitude every day!
Can you feel the season turning? The sunlight is coming through the trees at a different angle, the days are getting shorter. We’re feeling a bit of a lull after the frenzy of summer. After drenching rains last week, we have had some delicious late summer warmth, then right around time of Autumn Equinox, the temps cooled down and the rains began in earnest. Isn’t it funny how the weather spirits seem to know when the season turns?
Because we are away for a wedding on Autumn Equinox week-end, we won’t be celebrating Autumn Equinox with our annual “Descent into the Darkness Ritual” this year. But we do have two special events to welcome the autumn season in early October.
1. Join us for our autumn season Sweatlodge on Sunday October 6th. Read more about that here.
2. On Saturday October 5, we are honored to host a Fall Harvest Ceremony facilitated by guides from the group “Origin Teachings of the Delicate Lodge.” Follow this link for more info about the event and this link for more info about the teachings of this group.
In any case…….get outside and enjoy the the gifts of nature–fresh air, trees, wind, sun, rain. Hope to see you at the Groves soon.
April is one of the most beautiful months here at the Groves as the new leaves unfurl and flowers bloom…Do you feel fresh energy rising in your own bones, calling you outdoors to sniff and behold nature’s display? We sure do! The past week we were blessed with unseasonable warmth, blue skies, sunshine. The gardens and the woods called us out to putz and wander. Now the rains are falling again, soaking the seeds we put out. Life on planet Earth is such a miracle, especially in the Spring. Take time to appreciate the gift of life!
“Let us see the beauty every day
And source our lives from its presence!”
All through March our Guest Yurts were occupied by folks on month-long personal retreats…..and they are fully booked again through April, starting April 12th. So these upcoming days (April 5-11) are your chance this month to come stay at the Groves in its April glory. Give us a call and/or send us an e-mail and we’ll reserve one of these magical yurts for YOU! Don’t worry….it you don’t get here in April, we have many openings for May and beyond….Read more about our lodging options by clicking here.
The length of the daylight is about the same as the length of darkness during this time of Equinox and another new season begins later this month. As always at the time of seasons-change, we offer opportunities to honor and celebrate, to release the past and open ourselves to what-is-coming-in. We have been told that to rest and center at the beginning of each season puts us in alignment with the changes in nature, and things flow more smoothly as a result. This month we invite you to join us in the sweatlodge and/or to get your hands in the dirt at our Spring Workparty & Ritual. Whether you celebrate the onset of Spring here or in your own way, DO take the time to sync up your energy with nature!
February 2nd is an old pagan holy-day called Imbolc. In this culture, it is commonly called Groundhog Day. It is considered by some to be the start of early-spring, when the seeds in the ground begin stirring. Certainly the days are already growing a little longer than they were in the darkest corner of the year. Can you feel the energy stirring in your heart, body and soul? It is a good time to consider what seeds you want to plant for the upcoming seasons of light, and put some prayers on your personal altar, or join us in one of our ceremonies to send out those good intentions! Upcoming events include our week-end of monthly ceremonies on Feb 8-9-10 and our twice annual Grief Retreat on March 2-3.
2013 has officially begun! Our New Years Sweatlodge was potent and transformative; we continue to treasure the opportunity to experience this ancient ceremony, a wonderful way to shed the old and start a new cycle. However….the nights are still long, the days are short and cold, energy low and sleepy. We’re gearing up for this new year in a slow way, taking another week for rest and renewal, to align with the energies of this new season, this new era post-2012. But we are getting the 2013 Calendar fleshed out at long last….and Tere and I look forward to seeing you sometime soon!
In late November Thérèse responded to a call and had the privilege of delivering a baby on the Bainbridge Island-Seattle ferry. The story made great news on TV, radio and a couple websites. Check out these links