Is it time to rest and renew your soul?
Sacred Nest Retreat
April 11-13th, 2024
Heartland Retreat Center, Parkville, MO
SPRING IS THE TIME FOR REBUILDING NESTS, hatching creations, and taking flight in new directions. What new insights and old longings may nudge and beckon life anew for you? What hesitations or burdens might be holding you back from experiencing a greater fulfillment of life?
This retreat will offer divine love and joy so that you may rest and realize new intentions.
Ritual and facilitated small group dialogues provide opportunities for you to make meaningful connections and deepen your life purpose.
You can also experience emotional healing through restorative practices (your option to choose indoor or outdoor activities):
- labyrinth
- forest bathing
- centering and meditation
- Dances of Universal Peace
- gentle yoga
- creating with paint, poetry and collage.
Nature is a foundational source of our healing and wholeness, and during the retreat we will expand our embodied awareness of our true interdependence and sacred interbeing. We are about sharing delight and gratitude for life, as well as nurturing caregivers.
Caregivers are people who regularly give care to others. For some, it’s with a profession such as hospital staff, clergy, chaplains, social workers, teachers, spiritual directors, and healers. For some it’s a personal commitment to young children, aging parents, or partners who rely heavily on us.
Your facilitators Revs. Denise Tebbenkamp Hill, MDiv, MA, and Shannon Gorres, MDiv, MA. Read more about them below.
Lodging and Payment
Your lodging option includes meals and all workshop activities. Commuters drive in and out each day. We check in from 3-5pm on Thursday, April 11th, and conclude at 3pm on Saturday April 13th.
Each bedroom has 2 full size beds, nightstands and shelves, and a private bathroom.
Solo room (no roommate) $475
Sharing a room (1 roommate) $350
Commuters (no room) $250
(Contact us if you need to request a scholarship.)
Register now to secure one of the limited spots.
Register HERE
We are so happy to be hosted by this beautiful retreat center (though we are not theologically affiliated).
They provide buffet style lunches and dinners with several main course and side options in their cafeteria. Denise and Shannon will provide organic breakfasts including bagels, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, and fruit.
Feel free to explore the photos of the grounds and rooms, but contact Denise or Shannon with any questions.
Denise Hill, MDiv, MA, Clinical Pastoral Educator
Denise has been a Spiritual Director and retreat leader for over twenty years. She and her partner enjoy hiking in National Parks and serving locally through community gardening. Being in creation and learning from the cosmos is her passion and regular practice. As an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, she served as a local pastor and as a leader on the Conference level, providing compassionate support to clergy and congregations. She also cared for and taught diverse people as a chaplain and educator in several hospice and health care systems.
Whether one is discerning next steps, at a place of life ending or new beginning, she shares the gift of hospitality and grace, plus the ability to listen deeply and guide caring conversations in search of the spirit wisdom and fulfillment. She continues to expand her awareness and practice of art in and with healing nature. Recently, in the media of watercolor, she became a juried artist with Summit Art and continues to play at this imperfect and surprising craft.
Shannon Gorres, MDiv, MA
Shannon is a spiritual director, board certified chaplain, and nature therapy guide on Kanza lands, Kansas, USA. Along with her spouse and child, she shares sacred life with 20 acres of plants and animals. Her religious roots are Catholic, Protestant, Yogic, Buddhist, Sufi, and poetry. She was first ordained by the United Church of Christ and is now an ordained cherag in the Sufi Ruhaniat International. She companions diverse people through pain and disconnection into an integrative and loving relationship with themselves and the Divine. She engages embodied spiritual practices, nervous system science, trauma-healing techniques, and imaginal and nature elements.
Thursday
3pm-5pm Check-in, settle in, ground.
5:30pm All Group Session: Introductions
6pm Dinner
7-8:30pm All Group Session: Our Present Nest
Friday
8am Breakfast
8:45am Commuters arrive
9am All Group Session: Honoring our Caregiving Experiences
10:30am Your choice: “Creative Expression with Paint” with Denise or
“Dances of Universal Peace” with Shannon*
12pm Lunch
1pm Free time
2pm Your choice: “Contemplative Labyrinth Walk” with Denise* or
“Gentle Loving Yoga” with Shannon*
3:30pm Break
4pm Your choice: “Playing with Poetry” with Denise or
“Forest Bathing for Inner Restoration” with Shannon*
5:30pm Break
6pm Dinner
7-8pm All Group Session: Fire Circle of Divine Love*
Saturday
8am Breakfast and Pack up Rooms
9:45am Commuters arrive
10am All Group Session: Re-Building our Nest
12pm Lunch
1-2:30pm All Group Session: Preparing to Fly again*
*Outside, weather permitting
This retreat is interfaith, choice-based participation, and trauma informed. If you have questions, please ask us.
If you feel weary, this retreat is for you. If you need space to be heard, this retreat is for you. If you need time set aside to recenter, this is for you.
This is a gathering of caregiving souls in a container of holy peace. Our bodies are locations that house both stifling stress and a deep knowing of the path forward. It’s in the container of our collective bodies and shared heart intentions to bid healing that the Spirit of Peace can be more readily sensed.
Participants will have the opportunity to unwind, clear, and re-center with the support of Denise, Shannon, and Nature. Shannon has taught classical yoga for 15 years and has served in a Level-1 trauma hospital for 6 years, companioning others in burnout and resilience. Shannon will lead a playdough session where participants listen to their body’s voice of truth and kinesthetically express hurt or exhaustion, transforming when ready, to create room for more joy. Both during her career and into retirement, Denise has led many moving and enriching group sessions for chaplains, clergy, spiritual directors, and others. She is also the primary caregiver for her 97 year old mother. Our own journeys as caregivers gives us empathy and deep inner knowing, as well as our decades in ministry.
We will also have time to experience the holiness of respite through time to quietly process and reflect. By tenderly attending to the threads that weave together our lived experiences, we can taste the presence of divine love and peace again.