People take retreats at Fern Creek year round, each season offering its unique setting for whatever intentions and hopes a retreatant brings. A lit candle, mug of tea, and a cozy throw can draw one inward and downward, without need to apologize for the choice to hunker in. Winter is a natural season of retreat and renewal, of rest and reflection.
For a few years now Mark and I have opened the Fern Creek Airbnb apartment to host retreats--both personal ones and small group (up to 4 people for overnight stays). Most retreats have been unguided, where we provide the peaceful, quiet setting to retreat with access to Fern Creek's various gifts. It is common to hear post-retreat reflections include something of the peace of Fern Creek weaving into people's experience and encounters with God.
Some people reserve the Prayer Cabin for part of a day. Others come with groceries and clothes, books and journals and stay awhile. Some retreatants are local, others come from a distance. A few have added the Into the Woods Retreat as part of their stay, and several others have requested a session of spiritual-direction. Our most unique retreat is Gilead's Balm, which we've created for weary soul-care providers who need rest and support. This retreat includes psychotherapy sessions with Mark and spiritual direction sessions with me. We work with you before you come to craft a retreat that best serves you.
Having people retreat at Fern Creek enriches what transpires here, and Mark and I feel grateful to be Fern Creek's stewards and hosts. Offering a place of retreat aligns with our values more closely than renting it as a vacation spot, (though those who have vacationed here also speak of the peaceful stillness that undergirds life at Fern Creek). Given that, we are pausing our vacation rental option through Vrbo and Airbnb to make Fern Creek more fully available for retreating.[1]
While winter may be a natural time to retreat, a spring retreat at Fern Creek is accompanied with fruit and flower budding and blooming, a natural posture of spring that undergirds all of life. March, April and May offer the possibility of holding baby goats and/or watching their joyful simultaneous twisting, jumping and sprinting. Summer retreats can include naps in the hammock hung between a maple and oak down near the creek, and laying on the lawn after dark to observe the summer night sky. You're welcome to walk through the gardens and to pick a handful of berries, a plum or two, or an apple. Fall retreats temper the bright yellow of summer to a golden hue that arrives with a gentle cooling from summer heat although the gardens are still producing. Quiet walks in the woods or naps on the hammock might include falling leaves and acorns from oaks and maples whose leaves are turning yellow, red, and brown, and the scurry play and work of squirrels to prepare for winter.
That describes the setting a bit. I describe our retreat offerings more fully here, and encourage anyone feeling nudged to click and read the descriptions to see if an invitation to retreat burbles up for you. You can check the calendar for availability. What you select in the booking is the first day of the retreat, we figure out the rest of details via email.
I wish you well as you head into the year with whatever intentions and hopes you hold for it. May you find ways to make space for rest, and for deep listening to your longings and to God.
[1] We still offer direct bookings for non-retreat stays to prior guests and through word of mouth referrals.
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