UPCOMING EVENTS
Leading with Wisdom: A Courage to Lead® Retreat for Administrators
March 14-16, 2025
St. Francis Retreat Center
549 Mission Vineyard Rd,
San Juan Bautista, California 95045
$1340
In a time when leadership stress and pressure continue to rise, Courage to Lead® provides those in leadership roles with an weekend retreat designed for rest, reflection, renewal and re-engagement with their own wisdom, identity and integrity.
The program, originally conceived by esteemed educator Parker J. Palmer, offers an opportunity to reflect on the inner dimensions of leadership. You are invited to join us in exploring the heart and soul of leadership and delve into ways that we can bring greater integrity to our work.
Together we will:
Create a trustworthy space to tap into our individual and collective wisdom and honor the innate gifts we bring to our professional and personal lives
Draw inspiration from the Spring season in order to reflect, renew, re-inspire, and re-engage our leadership
Enhance our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of the communities and organizations we serve.
Emerge with greater clarity, integrity, and resilience.
This life-affirming investment in yourself will benefit you and all those who are touched by your leadership.
You can look forward to:
Time in community and in solitude
Opportunities to reflect on your own wisdom
Engaging with seasonal, thought-provoking essays, poetry, art, nature, photography and music from a variety of sources.
Drawing inspiration from the Spring season in ways that re-inspire and re-engage in the leadership roles we hold in our professional and personal lives.
Increasing your capacity to listen to yourself and to others more deeply.
Everything we will offer is by way of invitation, not demand.
Everyone is welcome, regardless of previous Circle of Trust experience.
A Circle of Trust as Sanctuary: A vibrant place for our souls to show up
Taking an inner journey toward rejoining soul and role requires a rare but real form of community that I call a “circle of trust.” —Parker J. Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness
A circle symbolizes equality, wholeness, and open space for movement and interaction. Trust embraces, awakens and invites our true self to inner reflection and courageous sharing. In this introductory retreat we are invited to create a circle of trust together.
Just as circle has a center and a circumference this retreat will flow in and out, from focusing on our inner teacher to listening to the wisdom of others in our circle. We will be introduced to the Touchstones, the blueprint of how a circle of trust is created. There will be significant time for silence and for reflecting on stories from our own journeys, as well as insights from poets, storytellers, and musicians. We will practice learning how to respond to someone’s sharing with open and honest questions rather than judgment or advice.
We create this circle/sanctuary to renew our courageous spirit and cultivate the stamina to keep showing up for ourselves, others, and the causes we care about.
You can find more information about the Center for Courage & Renewal® at www.couragerenewal.org.
Meet your facilitators
Alan Claassen is a Courage & Renewal® Facilitator prepared by the Center for Courage & Renewal®. He has long believed that the arts open pathways to our heart and soul, and move us to be compassionate toward all creation. In the Circle of Trust approach to personal authenticity and social responsibility, developed by the Center for Courage and Renewal®, Alan has found a practice that brings together his love of creativity, people, and non-violence. He and his beloved partner now live in Vancouver, Washington where they enjoy kayaking, hiking, and attending music concerts and modern dance performances.
Troy Brunke, M.S, applied the transformative experiences from Courage & Renewal® work to discern a career change from healthcare to the world of education in 2017. He is loving his work as a School Psychologist at the Salinas City Elementary School District, and currently in the final stages of becoming a Facilitator for the Center for Courage and Renewal. His free time finds him singing Bach, thumping an upright bass or bowing a Viola da Gamba in small ensembles throughout the Monterey Peninsula. Troy lives in Marina, California with his husband, their cat “Rocco” and a backyard chicken, named “Ova”.
Location: All Saints' Episcopal Church. 9th Avenue & Dolores Street, Carmel, California 93921,
Cost: $185. A light lunch will be provided, with vegetarian options. There are scholarships available so that cost is not a deterrence to attendance.
Troy is the retreat registrar. Email: brunkedc@gmail.com Phone: 831/521-0310
Please register by Friday, April 26, 2024.
What People Are Saying
“The retreat served to rejuvenate or reinvigorate my purpose in education. We took time to reflect on our particular gifts and how we can channel them in our roles. The agenda was well planned, giving us plenty of time to connect with one another in meaningful discussions, sharing honestly in a safe space, and listening sincerely in return. Both spoken word and silence, words from the wise as well as our own were valued. It refreshed mind, body, and spirit!”
— Participant from Exploring the Inner Teacher Retreat (Feb 2023)
“This retreat allowed me to take a pause and focus on myself, and reflect on how my sense of self impacts how I show up in my roles at work. I was able to connect with others and myself in authentic ways and came away from the experience with a better understanding of myself and my identity as an educator.”
— Participant from Exploring the Inner Teacher Retreat (Feb 2023)
“This retreat was so very helpful to me because I was able to discover and think through ideas and challenges I had not thought before this retreat. Considering what is true to being authentic of oneself is inspiring and has motivated me to incorporate more of my true self into my work, with my colleagues, and with my students. I cannot image becoming an even happier self at work than how I am currently feeling! There are so many struggles, stressors, and family guilt we all hold and bottle in. This weekend has sparked my biggest "WHY" I do what I do and "WHY" I continue to push on.”