Cultivating personal, cultural, and planetary stories for a new era.
“If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.” ~ Barry Lopez
A new story is emerging in our culture. Out of the ashes of separation and exploitation, a new way of being is taking shape. People everywhere are waking up to our interdependence, our prodigious powers of imagination, our compassion.When we are mired in the failing stories of domination and disconnection, we can miss the quiet whispers in our ears and hearts.
The purpose of this retreat is to explore the new messages that are germinating deep in our individual and collective consciousness. This program helps participants prepare the soil to cultivate new stories. It is a joyful, inspiring romp in mythic story structures, poetry, dreams, movement and the wild imagination. We will tell old stories and practice listening for new ones.
The magic of the Restorying experience
“I often feel isolated in my thoughts, but found many kindred spirits in the group,” T.R., participant at Stillpoint, September 2014
“The poetry you brought and the questions you posed to get us thinking about our lives was so valuable,” B.R., participant in the “Turning to the Light”
Upcoming retreats
June 14-16, 2019: Painting Retreat with Corey Matthews Hardeman.
Join Canadian painter Corey Matthews Hardeman for a weekend of practice with shadow and light, the shimmer of reflective color from leaves and tree trunks, water and sky and rock.
Painting is storytelling, a view through layers into depths. To paint is to connect to the world. To make the magical shift from seeing objects to being in relationship with everything.
This is a rare opportunity for artists and art lovers to spend time with other artists, to share process and be near each other in joyful creative cross-pollination.
December 1-3, 2017: The Gift of Story. A retreat for Advent and the Winter Solstice. Sometimes, the deepest gift we can give and receive are is gift for story, ritual, and ceremony: our personal and collective narratives, our music, our dances, our poetry and contemplation, our simple gestures and wordless prayers. Location: Rolling Ridge Study Retreat, Harper’s Ferry, WV. Details and registration.
January 19-21, 2018: Winter Light: Returning Home to a Place of Deep Belonging. Wander slowly among the frozen grasses and the trees, listening for winter’s strange wild songs, for the story the land is telling, for the dream it carries. Gather around the warm glow of the hearth fire, immerse in the old stories, the ancient myths that help us shed our illusions of separation and awaken us to the deeper belonging that has always been there. Location: Wellspring Retreat Center, Germantown, MD. Details and registration.
“A world made of story is an earth permeated by dreams, a terrain filled with imagination. Yet this is not so much our imagination, but rather the world’s imagination, in which our own actions are participant. As players within an expansive, ever-unfolding story, our lives are embedded within a psyche that is not primarily ours, but is rather the earth’s.” ~ from Becoming Animal by David Abram
Past retreats
June 2-4, 2017: Restorying the Heroine’s Journey. Location: Rolling Ridge, Harper’s Ferry, WV. See below for an idea of what we do at these women-only gatherings.
May 19-21, 2017: Writing from the Soul. Come together with fellow lovers of writing in an impromptu community that includes ceremony, journaling, freewriting, sharing, solo wanders on the land, active listening, storytelling, nourishing meals, and other soulful activities. Location: Still Point Mountain Retreat, Harper’s Ferry, WV.
December 2 – 4, 2016: A Gift of Story: a Retreat for Advent and the Winter Solstice. At Rolling Ridge in Harper’s Ferry, WV.
October 21 – 23, 2016: Thriving on the Threshold: Becoming a Community of the New Story. At Still Point Mountain Retreat, Harper’s Ferry, WV.
April 29 – May 1, 2016: Restorying the Heroine’s Journey: Sacred Circles and Wild Wanders. With special guest faculty, Lisa Bardack leading Sacred Circle dance. And drumming with Katy Gaughan.
October 8 – 11, 2015: Between the Body and the Breathing Earth: A ReStorying Retreat withDavid Abram, at Still Point Mountain Retreat, Harper’s Ferry, WV.
May 29 – 31, 2015: Restorying the Heroine’s Journey: Sacred Circles and Wild Wanders, at Rolling Ridge, Harper’s Ferry, WV. With special guest faculty, Lisa Bardack, who led Sacred Circle dance.
April 17 – 19, 2015: Breaking Through: a Spring Equinox retreat at Wellspring Conference Center in Germantown, MD. Yoga taught by Vivian Campagna of Baltimore Yoga Village.
December 5 – 7, 2014: The Gift of Story at Rolling Ridge in Harper’s Ferry, WV. Follow this link to details and registration page.
September 12 – 14, 2014: Still Point Mountain Retreat, Harper’s Ferry, WV. With 9/15 as an optional add-on day.
March 28 – 30, 2014: The Heroine’s Journey: a retreat of story and discovery, at Rolling Ridge, Harper’s Ferry, WV.
February 21 – 22, 2014: Turning to the Light: a Restorying Yoga retreat at Baltimore Yoga Village.
December 6 – 8, 2013: Advent Retreat celebrating story at Rolling Ridge in Harper’s Ferry, WV
September 27 – 29, 2013: Still Point Mountain Retreat, Harper’s Ferry, WV
Schedule a Restorying retreat
This workshop can be designed as a half-day, full day, or weekend experience. Please contact us to inquire about booking for your organization’s retreat or company off-site meeting.
You will
- Gain in awareness of the need for new stories
- Feel a profound sense of belonging and welcome from the greater community of Life
- Summon and receive mythic stories
- Practice listening for stories, guidance and encouragement
- Personal
- Cultural
- Planetary
- Experience your own ability to be a conduit for new stories
- Let stories do their work on you
- Share ways of living in this time between stories
Basic Structure
- Letting Go
- Release old stories that no longer serve
- Letting Come
- Imaginative journalling
- Share in dyads, triads, and full Council
- Pay attention
- Encounters with the Sacred Other
- Collaborate to revision cultural stories
- Song, movement, poetry
- Activiating
- Cultivate new stories
- Design the future
- Make a vow
Sample Content
- Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell)
- Heroine’s Journey (Maureen Murdock, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, etc)
- Thomas Berry and the Dream of the Earth
- Archetypes and dreamwork
- Teaching stories from various wisdom traditions
- Mythic stories
- Examples of living the new stories
Resources and further exploration
Thriving on the Threshold is a journal of this time of living between stories.
Visit this page for links to some great articles about the emerging new story.
Join our forum to add your voice to the conversation, share resources, and find a wealth of inspiration for your exploration of the emerging New Story.
Check out our film in production.
Book Julie as a speaker at your next event. Information here.
“Julie Gabrielli’s workshop captivated me. Listening to her speak made me feel like a child next to my loving mother. Her very presence honors the value of story-telling, and invites you to be swept up into the welcoming arms of belief-suspension. Through the power of story, Julie demonstrates how to get a message through to an audience effortlessly, without ever preaching or nagging. She goes deep into the essence of things, and knows how speak truth and clarity through words of fiction. I highly recommend working with Julie if you want to become enamored with your mission in a way that inspires a wonderful narrative.” ~ Sarah Sloboda, writer and writing coach
