Cultivate and Connect Retreat Reflection
Apr 07, 2024
It will be impossible to put this experience into words, but I am beyond grateful to have an opportunity to cohost my first weekend retreat with the amazing Terra McAulliffe!
Facilitating wellness, cultivating hope, and creating connections for a group of incredible women from sunrise to sunset each day was an honor and I can’t wait until next time.
Not only is Fern Hall Estate a gorgeous manor where all the women can sleep comfortably and cook as a community, it is also a regenerative sheep farm and the owners are the most amazing people dedicated to educating people of all ages 
Twelve beautiful people entrusted us to guide them through this journey in and out of their comfort zone as they hit the pause button to recharge and we are so grateful.
No one knew all of the others (not even me and Terra), but everyone built trust, connection and community!
We gathered at sunrise and sunset, encouraged and inspired each other, cooked and ate together, cold plunged, hiked, herded sheep, drank cacao, laughed, cried, played, journaled, exercised, cultivated, connected, and celebrated.
Here’s to old friends and new growing and doing life together in magical moment in time!
I can't finish this post with out some Cohost Appreciation because none of this would've happened with out Terra McAulliffe, some cacao, a LOT of oils and a really detailed Google Doc.
One of my new tattoos (which can be seen in this shot of us shivering to make sure we got the full effect after jumping in a winter lake at 7am this morning) says “Arete” and it loosely translates into “wisdom” or “virtue” in a way that really means “showing up as the best version of ourselves moment to moment”.
& that is exactly what we got to do this weekend.
Terra and I have attended so many retreats together over the last ten years and we always came away with new tips, tools, friends, and a knowing that we were meant to create similar experiences for more people.
We are blessed that, when we show up as the best version of ourselves for work, we are often together and the way that we compliment each other's strengths and weaknesses is pretty unbelievable.
Terra and I are very different in so many ways but we are very similar in all the ways that matter - like our values, vision, and core beliefs.
She is the structure to my chaos and I am the goofy to her grace. She brings the checklists and science and I bring the dance party playlists and Play-doh, but it all works so beautifully because we show up with tools and techniques and ways of BEing that are meant to be different (aka idiosyncratic).
By owning our uniqueness, we show what it's like to celebrate all of our parts and we give others permission to show up in THEIR authenticity too, and that is a mission we never take for granted.
This is definitely the first step on an incredible journey and I'm so grateful that someone like Terra saw something in me and was brave enough to say - "hey! let's make some magic happen together"!
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