The Heart of What Matters: Making Meaning in a Time of Crisis

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

To many of us things feel like they are falling apart: the old ways cannot hold. Institutions are faltering and failing. Amidst so much uncertainty and suffering, we can lose our footing, experiencing waves of outrage, denial, helplessness, despair or blame. There is a growing sense that this requires a radical response from each of us – radical meaning going to the root (radix).

What does a meaningful life look like now? Where do we choose to place our attention?

This retreat invites us to pause and see ourselves, our world, our human and more-than human kin, afresh. By gently shifting the focus of our attention and opening ourselves to heart-centred, intuitive and embodied ways of knowing, we’ll explore meaning, not as an idea but as a lived experience. Noticing how meaning ebbs and flows like the tide, we’ll give time to the question of how we sustain meaning in the gap between our heartfelt inspirations and everyday reality.

Hosted by John Watters and Céline McKeown (see profiles below), this weekend retreat is a call to come home to ourselves and connect to the heart of what truly matters.

Circle of Trust® Retreat

Our time together will be shaped by a distinctive set of principles and practices, pioneered by Dr. Parker J. Palmer and developed through the Center for Courage & Renewal, practices that help create gracious, trustworthy space for your individual reflection and which will guide our interactions as a group.

During the weekend we will weave together a tapestry of colourful threads as we uncover our sources of meaning through poetry, music, silence, the sharing of stories, being immersed in nature, walking a hand-painted 11 circuit canvas labyrinth, somatic movement, creative activities and simple meditative practices.

Everything we do is by invitation, based on the understanding that you know best what you need. We will alternate time for individual reflection and journaling with opportunities for time in small groups and the larger circle to share and listen. Our experience of meaning is paradoxically deeply personal and also universal. Meaning cannot be told or given to us by others. Yet, in the gentle process of witnessing someone else discovering and revealing their sources of meaning, we deepen our own understanding of the heart of what matters.

On Saturday evening, you will experience a powerful discernment process adapted from the Quaker tradition for Courage & Renewal programmes. A number of people will be invited to be a ‘Focus Person’. Each focus person will have the opportunity to explore in depth a dilemma, an important question they are facing or a personal challenge with four to six other participants, who will be members of their Clearness Committee. The members of the Clearness Committee will listen attentively and ask honest, open questions. The practices underpinning Clearness Committees date back to the 1660s and are unique, gentle and powerful, and above all trustworthy, enabling the focus person to access a new depth of self-awareness and insight about the questions they are holding.

When?

12.30pm, Friday 12 July through to 1.15pm, Sunday 14 July 2024

Where?

Emerson College, an education charity whose purpose is to develop, practice and teach sustainable ways of working and living through experiential teaching and inner-led change. The campus is set in 22 acres of beautiful botanic gardens.

Emerson College is well connected to transport hubs. Regular direct trains run between London Bridge and East Grinstead train station and the journey time is one hour. Taxis can be booked from East Grinstead station to Emerson College (15 minute journey). The closest major airport is London Gatwick airport, which is 14 miles from Emerson College. Taxis can be booked (30 minute journey) from Gatwick airport or alternatively local buses also connect Gatwick Airport with Forest Row.

Who?

We will be a diverse circle of people, drawn from different contexts and backgrounds. The Center for Courage & Renewal and its facilitators do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race or ethnicity, nationality, marital or family status, sexual orientation/identity, social class, religion, age, physical or mental ability.

We aim to create an inclusive and welcoming space for everyone and invite you to join us in this shared endeavour.

“Humans have a responsibility to find themselves where they are,

in their own proper time and place,

in the history to which they belong

and to which they must inevitably contribute

either their response or their evasions,

either truth and act, or mere slogan and gesture”.

Thomas Merton, Eco activist, monk, mystic

What does it cost?

Retreat Fee

We are committed to making our programmes accessible to a wide range of people. Recognising that economic circumstances vary greatly we offer a choice of retreat fees. The retreat fee covers skilled facilitators, workshop materials, venue hire and the costs of meals (lunches on Friday, Staurday and Sunday, all breaks and supper on Friday and Saturday evenings). Please choose the fee that fits your economic circumstances.

Supporters Fee: £495. If you are on a higher income, we invite you to pay the supporters fee. This enables us to widen access to this retreat by offering reduced fee rates to individuals who are in need of further financial support.

Standard Fee: £395

Reduced Fee: £295. Please choose this fee if you are unable to afford the standard fee.

Accommodation

You book your accommodation separately. We recommend staying on site at Emerson or locally as there are evening sessions after dinner on Friday and Saturday. There are a range of accommodation options to suit different needs:

You can stay on site at Emerson College which offers single rooms with shared showers and toilets. There is also an option to camp at Emerson or bring your campervan. Click here to view the options and book your accommodation on a bed & breakfast basis directly with Emerson College.

Local Bed & Breakfasts and small hotels in the village of Forest Row.

Ashdown Park Hotel is a comfortable country house hotel, a short drive from Emerson College.

What participants say about our Circle of Trust retreats

"What I loved about it was the meticulous care with which all aspects of the weekend were carried out, which enabled a great sense of safety to develop, and so the possibility of deep and meaningful work. It all felt fresh, and as if it had been prepared with an attitude of love and care." Pattie Horrocks

"I felt safely held, supported and free to roam where I could be with my inquiry and sense into my own rhythms and rhyme. This is powerful and heart-full work". Rita McNulty

“The retreat gave me time and the inspiration to reflect on what’s important for me just now. The well-crafted programme was a good balance of reflective content, discussion, movement, reflection time, and private time. It was relaxed, well paced, and helped me value the joy and aliveness that is always available to me when I take the time to notice”. Jules Fell

“The Circle of Trust retreat is an amazingly powerful and deeply profound and nourishing opportunity to explore your own sense of self and to be truly 'seen' and 'held' as your authentic self”. Gerry Andrews

“Wonderful retreat which is a tonic for the soul and truly inspiring to be in such a warm community in the beautiful surroundings of Emerson College”. Angela Risner

"It changed my life. A healing experience where I felt seen and cared for." Angela Cranmore

I felt like my essence was seen, acknowledged and reinforced. Wasn’t expecting that. Felt like a blessing. I think the process is a great way of shaping and reinforcing communities”. Salman Ahmad

As facilitators we will join you in this shared inquiry, as fellow participants, and also hold the space and process for the retreat, using the Circle of Trust touchstones as the guiding principles for how we gather.

John Watters

John is a Facilitator with the Center for Courage & Renewal, Founding Director of Living Leadership and Co-Founder of the Centre for Spirituality

John’s leadership and organisational consultancy work connects individuals, teams and whole systems with their full potential. His work spans multiple sectors and orga nisations as diverse as NATO, UNESCO, Shell, Roche, public sector organisations, central and local government, global and local charities. John pioneered the introduction into Europe of Barry Oshry’s systems thinking and is one of the world’s leading practitioners in this approach. John specialises in facilitating breakthroughs on complex issues and finding common ground in stuck and conflicted situations. In his work John pays special attention to holding space for our full humanity to be present, creating conditions to sense the heart of the issue and strengthening our capacity to listen deeply to ourselves, others and the whole system.

John has Masters Degrees in change agent skills and strategies from the University of Surrey and in health planning & financing from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree in business studies from the University of Edinburgh. He is married with three young adult children and lives in Shoreham-by Sea, UK. John loves cycling and practicing the art of telling stories, both biographical and traditional.

Céline McKeown

Céline is a Director and a Lead Trainer with Map of Meaning International and Founder of Do What Matters.

As experienced coach, facilitator and trainer Celine works with people and organisations to reshape the world of work, business and society. In her early career Celine was a brand strategist then sustainability consultant working across sectors and industries. From leading outer change in the world, Celine turned her focus to the inner-change that is needed for leaders to make a difference in the world. For the last 15 years, Celine has focussed on coaching change-makers to strengthen their purpose, meaning and impact. She also works with organisations on building meaningful work and workplaces, aligning purpose, strategy and impact, facilitating participative and collaborative group processes, and training leaders to develop their inner capacity to sustain themselves and the change that the world needs.

Her most recent projects have included creating Meaning Makers a 12 week meaning-centred coaching journey for everyday people who want to create more meaning in their life or work; working with NHS workers to find meaning and sustain their humanity in a system that is overstretched and overstretching them; designing a multi-stakeholder participatory dialogue for members of CitizensUK in Brighton and Hove; and training students with the life-skills to navigate the uncertainties of life and the future, and to create meaningful ways of living and working for the wellbeing of people and planet.

Celine has a Masters in Responsibility and Business Practice from the University of Bath, a Bachelors in Economics and Politics from University of Bristol. She is a Map of Meaning® Certified Practitioner. She is a French-British dual citizen who grew up in France and now lives in Brighton, UK with her husband and two teenage children. She loves swimming, preferably in the sea, and dancing, particularly the argentine tango.

Cancellations

Eventbrite registrations can be cancelled up to 30 days prior to the retreat, a full refund will be given, minus the non-refundable booking/processing fee taken by Eventbrite. No refund is possible within 30 days of the event. In the unlikely event that, due to unforeseen circumstances, the retreat must be cancelled by us, we will refund all retreat fees paid by participants. Our liability is limited to the retreat fee. We recommend participants have adequate insurance to cover any travel or personal expenses resulting from cancellation or your inability to attend due to for example illness.

Questions

Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions about the retreat that you would like to discuss. Email John at john.watters@livingleadership.org.uk or Celine at celine@dowhatmatters.co.uk

Photos of the venue courtesy of Emerson College Trust ltd

“The grandeur of life is that attempt (to survive whole), it is not about that solution. It is about being as fearless as we can, and behaving as beautifully as we can under completely impossible circumstances. It’s that, that makes it elegant… We are already born, we are going to die so we have to do something interesting that you respect in between.”

Toni Morrison, American writer and Nobel Prize Winner for Literature