Choosing Hope, virtual retreat

It is hard to be hopeful these days and yet the biblical promise is that “faith, hope and love remain.” How to uncover the energy of hope in these dark days will be the inner work of this short retreat.

We will begin on Friday by asking what brought you alive in this past year? And what drained your energy? That will give us a sense of the strengths and challenges in the group – because hope is both an individual spark and the flow of life energy in community.

On Saturday, we will explore times when we did what we thought was impossible in order to name the many forms of resilience that can emerge in times of grief and loss as well as success. The premise of this retreat is that times of dis-illusionment can shift hope from wishful thinking to practical and courageous action even when the steps seem small or insignificant.

We will also examine times of risk and relationship to discover how courage and caring emerge – including what we need to release or forgive. Becoming conscious of our own actions and values will help us redefine hope as a choice rather than a belief.

To ground our words in a tangible way, I will ask you to be creating an altar that you can see from your computer, beginning with a clear space and a single candle on Friday evening. At different spots on Saturday, I will ask you to find or create symbols that make visible your own story of choosing hope. Please bring a journal and some way of adding color to paper (crayons, pencils, pens etc.)

This online retreat will give you space, time, teaching, and interested companions to discover a more hope-full path ahead.

— Marjory Zoet Bankson is an author, artist, and seasoned spiritual guide from  Seekers, a Church of the Saviour community in Washington, DC. A graduate of Radcliffe College, Marjory has an MA in American history from the University of Alaska and an honorary doctorate from Virginia Theological Seminary, cited for her work in lay ministry as President of Faith@Work. Her books include Call to the Soul, Creative Aging, The Soulwork of Clay, and Stalking the Spirit.