How do we navigate the emotions of grief, anger or despair we may feel as we witness the loss, destruction and injustices of a world in upheaval? Many of us were not offered the skills to navigate our emotional landscape, instead we may have learned to suppress or distract from our painful emotions. As we build the capacity to recognize and honor our emotional landscape, we become more capable of being present to the world we long to save.
In this two-hour virtual community gathering, we begin in gratitude, open our hearts toward the painful truths and remember that we are not alone.
This gathering is offered in concert with the Wild and Scenic Film Festival as a space for festival participants to be with and share their experiences with the films. There is no expectation or requirement that participants have attended the films. During the Festival, we are also hosting an in person gathering in the activist center on February 15 as well as a half-day in person gathering in Nevada City on February 17.
The Work That Reconnects (WTR) is a life-affirming transformative group process that supports us in alchemizing our painful emotions, rekindling our deep love for this world, and remembering our belonging. In the Spiral Journey of the WTR, we begin by grounding in gratitude, create space for honouring our pain for the world, open into seeing with new eyes, and go forth with renewed connection, courage, clarity and purpose.
Suggested donation $25-35
Facilitated by Frieda Nixdorf, Gary Reedy and Constance Washburn
Frieda Nixdorf is committed to liberation for all. She facilitates transformative experiences for participants to remember our belonging, interdependence, and kinship with the more-than-human world. Among many things, Frieda has studied art, religion, psychology, deep ecology, yoga and the intricacies of the beautiful and broken world we inhabit. She has taught Eastern and Western Psychology at the community college level, and soul purpose and professional development at the graduate level. Frieda offers Work That Reconnects and Soul Purpose workshops and serves as a Weaver for the Work That Reconnects Network.
Gary Reedy is a former River Scientist who has participated in 18 Wild and Scenic Film Festivals and lately turned to grief tending and group ritual as a means for personal wholeness and community healing. Gary has participated in several grief & gratitude retreats. He is familiar with six gates of grief from both personal experience and holding space for others. Gary is Director for the United Way of Nevada County and a Councilman for the Northern California ManKind Project.
Constance Washburn is an activist, educator, director and a facilitator of the Work That Reconnects living in California. Since 1994 she has attended many intensives with Joanna Macy. Constance has been leading WTR retreats and workshops in Northern California for many years. In 2017 we started the Spiral Journey: a Facilitator Development Program.
Constance is one of the founding Weavers of the WTR Network, as well as a founding member of the Conscious Elders Network where she leads workshops and retreats for Elders in the WTR. She’s been a Buddhist practitioner since 1968, a yoga teacher and a Community Dharma Leader. Constance has an MA in Theatre and Education with studies in psychodrama and sociodrama, and spent years teaching and directing theater. For 20 years she engaged in land-based work, working in farmland preservation and education on behalf of organic local sustainable food systems.