Update for the April ’24 Mornington Peninsula Retreat
Melbournians know that mid to late autumn is the most glorious time in the city of Melbourne. It is characterized by crisp cold mornings that dissipate into clear warm windless days. The warm air feels clean and vistas change colour as the deciduous trees do their autumn thing. Bella’s Block, our Mornington Peninsula Retreat location, exceeded these autumn expectations. Our backdrop was an expansive vineyard providing a carpet of yellow, orange, and red hues.
The external environment was accentuated by the internal environment. The wood stove provided cosy warmth, an ember glow, and a faint smokiness. The house, our temporary retreat centre, was also filled with the smells of home cooking. Fresh, in season, and tasty produce, that had been cut, poked, prodded, seasoned and heated to delight our autumn appetites.
Retreat participants engage in a range of creative activities designed to encourage the development of their resilience practice. Some creative pursuits were familiar, some challenging. Engaging or reengaging with creative pursuits are essential indulgences critical to our resilience practice.
In her closing comments retreat participant Laura’s observation was. ‘I feel like I have been held.’ This is the opposite of the daily experience of those of us engaged in peace building, social change and caring professions. It is opposite as we are usually the ones doing the holding.
‘Being held’ for a number of days while on retreat is a lovely experience, but what is important is what happens from day 1 after a resilience retreat. What is it that you wake up and do differently in support of your personal resilience? The retreat participants all undertook to engage or reengage with new or forgotten creative pursuits in support of the resilience practice.
Space Melbourne and Space Bangkok encourage you to consider our upcoming retreats. Our next retreat is scheduled for 31 October to 4 November ’24 in Phuket. Please contact us if you need information on this or other retreats or you would like to build a bespoke retreat for your organisation.