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Arts to the Ridge 2016

A creative spirit retreat for girls ages 10-16
June 26-July 1, 2016
supper potluck 3 pm Sunday June 26 - lunch Friday, July 1
Still Point Mountain Retreat near Harpers Ferry WV

Retreat to the Ridge and bring your art with you. If you draw, dance, sing, write, play a musical instrument, sculpt, sew, or otherwise create—this retreat is for you! Practice in an inspiring mountain setting; share creative experiences with one another; explore the connection between silence, spirit, and creativity; try something new in sampler sessions with guest artists. Parents and younger sibs welcome.

Retreat fee is $425. Register and pay by April 15 for $400. Scholarships are available, as well as family/sibling discounts, and discounts for girls of parent staff/artists.

Features:

  • 5 Overnights
  • Kid-friendly meals
  • Campfire
  • Marshmallows
  • Visiting and mentoring artists
  • Hiking trails
  • Pond
  • River
  • Kindred spirits
  • Creative partnership with the Great Creator

For more information, and to register, contact: Mary Ann Welter. Phone: 301-277-5767 or 301-332-5780. Email: mary_ann_welter@yahoo.com

$100 deposit payable to Friends of Silence. Mail check and registration form to 3806 30th Street, Mt. Rainier, MD 20712

Things to bring:

Sleeping bag or twin bedding, pillow, personal hygiene items including sunscreen and bug repellant, sturdy, closed-toe shoes for hiking and getting wet/muddy, outdoorsy clothes for both warm and cool weather, pjs, a bathing suit, 2 towels, washcloth, hat, raincoat, journal or blank notebook, pens/pencils, tools of your own art (instrument, music, paints, sketchpad, skits, clay), a poem, story or song to share, and creative energy. Mark all belongings with your name, please.

Still Point Retreat, located adjacent to the 1,400-acre Rolling Ridge wilderness preserve 60 miles from Washington, D.C., featuring the Appalachian Trail and scenic Shenandoah River, offering nature’s renewal, recreational opportunities, silence, solitude, and comfy accommodations. Facilities include a modern Retreat Cabin, small cottages, tent sites, tipis, a spring-fed pond, and a large deck overlooking the river. Additional accommodations at Rolling Ridge Study Retreat, a nondenominational retreat facility committed to nurturing individuals, families and communities.

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Quote of the Day

Alone, in the cave that he loved so well near the summit of Mt. Subasio, Francis met God again ... Silence and solitude had become dear and sweet to Francis. As he reflected on that, he remembered a time when it was not so. In his youth, he dreaded and took refuge in the gaiety and laughter and frolicking of his friends. Always, at the edge of his consciousness, however, was the somber specter called Aloneness.

That's the way Aloneness appeared to Francis then -- a specter, a mortal enemy bearing a sickle in its hand. It was only when he finally met that specter head on, after his conversion experience, that he found the IT became HER; and then he made friends with her. She became, in fact, his best friend and constant companion.

It was a struggle of course, a struggle to be alone and to allow the pain of loneliness to be transformed into the sweetness of solitude. It didn't come easily and without countless ways in which he had to let the specter within him die. Gradually, he saw that the specter was an illusion -- a figment of his own imagining.

Now, as Francis retrieved himself from the reverie, he thought to himself guiltily, I'm supposed to be praying. Then he smiled. He knew the reverie was part of his prayer, an important part. It was through such a reverie that he had come in the first place to understand solitude for what it really was: togetherness.

~ from TOUCH OF GOD by Fr. Kieran Kay
 
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