Being Together
deepening roots in home and Opening our Hearts To The World
Creating Sacred Space Together
How can we stay connected to the good, true and beautiful in our nature in the midst of radical change, feelings of groundlessness and growing concern for ourselves and the world? How will we meet the sorrow and confusion, celebrations and strange joys of these times together?
We began this offering as the COVID pandemic landed with its hard reality, recognizing we were being called upon to deepen our roots in home and open our hearts to the world. Now, three years later we are living in a different world, one changed by the pandemic and exposed discrepancies in need of our attention, compassion and informed action. Grief is and will continue to be a core experience, container and friend as we meet unprecedented loss, unraveling the fabric of life as we have known it.
Being Together is an invitation to gather midweek, to pause and rest into the fertile field of community – human and more than human, nature and elemental forces of life, to draw upon collective imagination and somatic (living body) resonance as resources for meeting what is and opening to what wants to be.
We invite you to join us on Zoom Wednesdays 4:00 – 4:30 p.m. in these potent times for Being Together!
* Custom classes are available for organizations, families and groups
Our Facilitators
Penny Allport – Facilitator
Facilitator Penny Allport is a Certified Life-Cycle Celebrant, Metaphysical Minister, Funeral Celebrant and Home Funeral Guide, poet and wordsmith, yogini and Continuum Movement facilitator. A lover of world wisdom traditions and participating in ceremonies honouring the life-death-life cycle from Mexico to Bali, Africa and the Amazon informs Penny’s work. Co-creating ceremony with couples and families in rites of passage, weddings, baby blessings, end of life and remembrance is one of her deepest joys. Penny facilitates multi-generational classes and retreats, combining Continuum Movement, Yoga, writing, painting and dream processes, also incorporating the work of my mentor Angeles Arrien (1940-2014), Cross Cultural Anthropologist, teacher and author of The Second Half of Life, 8 Gates of Initiation.
A personal journey of healing trauma inspires an ongoing inquiry in nervous-system regulation and resilience as key to our kind future. The burgeoning field of Relational Somatic Therapy informs all of Penny’s work, through past and present studies with Emilie Conrad (1934 – 2014) Continuum Movement, Susan Harper Continuum Montage, Hubert Godard, Rolfer, Kevin Frank & Caryn McHose, Resources in Movement and CFTRE.
Medwyn McConachy – Guest Facilitator
I have been walking alongside the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits of the land since the mid 1990’s when an experience with ancient earth-based practices resonated as a home place for me. Following the Celtic wheel of the year grounds me in my relationship to the cycles of nature and wisdom ways of the more than human. I am a queer aging woman with a passion for the earth and all her beings. Among the things I hold dear are organic food, farmers and farming, body centred healing arts, community co-creation, ritual and ceremony, music and the written word. In striving to reduce my impact on the earth, I have reduced my material possessions to what will fit in my tiny home on wheels in which I live, write poetry and make textile art beside a meadow on the Southern part of Salt Spring Island, unceded ancestral territory of the Hul’q’umi’num and SENĆOŦEN speaking people, of the Quw’utsun First Nation.
I have lived all over the country in my fifty six years here. I am particularly grateful for the years I spent in the North where I was privileged to witness the courage of the indigenous community in mounting some of the first land claims in Canada. Since then my decolonizing process has led me down many paths of connection and healing through sweat lodges, healing circles and medicine wheel ceremonies. Among my teachers and influencers are Starhawk, Joanna Macy, Aline LaFlamme, and Robin Wall Kimmerer. I am grateful beyond words for all the friendships and communities that have been part of my life.
Meadow Dove Lang – Past Facilitator
I am grateful and blessed to live on S,ḴŦAK, now known as “Mayne Island” which is an ancestral and unceded gathering place of many Coast Salish peoples. The Tsartlip band, of the W̱SÁNEĆ Nation, continues to have an especially close ongoing relationship here. A lifelong learner, I have taken a deep dive in studying & practicing embodiment theory & techniques ~ personally (starting with dance) in the 1980’s, and professionally for more than 20 years. Through the business I created, Meadow Dove Wellness, the primary modalities I enthusiastically employ to help people reconnect with their wholeness and live authentically are: BodyMind Coaching, Massage Therapy, and Yoga (as well as so much more!). I love to work with a limited number of people to maintain an exceptionally high quality of care.
I am in awe of the innate healing capabilities of the body (as well as the Earth), and aim to create a supportive environment for the magic to unfold. Connecting with and exploring the inner landscape ~ through which we can explore our connection with the Bigger Picture, aka the Universe ~ and offering compassionate presence for that which is calling for attention to be witnessed, acknowledged, and integrated. I believe there is a connection between how we care for ourselves, each other, and the planet. I bring curiosity, an open mind and heart, to every interaction. Peace begins within. Awareness is the first step.