I’m coming up from four days in circle with men. It is a retreat called Soultime. Held in the woods of Bowen Island, in a yurt. It is a time to lose ourselves, this time eleven of us, in a mythic story, exploring our learning that connects to that story. It is a time to listen well together, welcoming the unique connecting that men both can do, and need to do. It is a time to be communal, to share the cooking and the cleaning. It is a time to create ritual, to help internalize some of this deep space and invitation of this time together.
Each time I come to Soultime, I feel as though I remember something very important. “Ah, there it is, there is that unique space that so many men crave, that I crave.” Each time I come to Soultime, I remember that men are meant to be together to support each other in some of the basics, and to heal, and to move with a bit more wholeness, and to welcome a transformational way of being. Each time I remember, that men have gifts to be found, some of them, that can only be found in the gratitude of men in community.