GERYUNANT RETREAT CENTER transforming
Our Mission
The name of this retreat center is Geryunant, which means making whole by the brook. The forest, nestled between two hills, is a sacred, welcoming place supported by many mother trees, the nourishing waters of Stickney Brook, and the hearts of many who have healed here.
There is something inside everything living that wants to become itself.
This space has been co-created by Nature and the artists who have lived,worked, and played here. Geryunant has invited the life process of all individuals and groups who visit here to unfold, unimpeded. It is a right and wrong free zone where conscious and unconscious intent are equally valued, mistakes become stepping stones, and no one dances alone. The brook receives all it is offered and endlessly brings in new fresh waters.
Now the process continues. Geryunant transforms as I, the steward of this rich wood and water land retreat for the past two plus decades, am moving on.
Geryunant is looking for a new sterward or stewards.
The Center is now Looking for a new steward. I am confident that this Sacred Space will reach out to just the right people. Those that can hear it will come.
Helen Hawes
Hello,
It is not only Geryunant that is transforming, I too am changing identities, letting go of being a practicing visual Artist, giving up the studio, the materials, the gallery scene, the actual making, with heart and hands, and selling of Art. How I wondered can I be an artist who doesnt make art?and what, Oh what will fill the emptiness left behind?
At 77 I made some radical and wonderful changes. I moved out of the safety of the studio, still being mentored by my teachers, the drawings and the metaphors they had brought me over the years. "Let go", they said, "of the separation between Art and Life. Stop making Art. let life make you into Art. Continue making the invisible visible, but move to subtler and subtler levels. Trust in emergence, something will arise to fill the beautiful void."
,
Trusting was difficult for some time but, magically, something did come to fill the void. I am now teaching Tai Chi and Qi Gong. I have been practicing both for over 40 years and with a leap of faith now find myself teaching both and learning an immense ammount from my students and the Chi, my new teachers. I am in love with this new Art Form.
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Creating bridgees between inner and outer worlds has been a constant thread throughout my life. Much of my work, dialoguing with imagery, derives from three sources:
Creating bridges between inner and outer worlds has been a constant thread throughout my life. Much of my work, dialoguing with imagery, derives from three sources:
1.) The unquestioned belief I have had since childhood that everything lives and talks.
2.) A desire to facilitate cross-species communication, of all kinds!
3.) The work of my mentors,Artist and Jungian analyst, Edith Wallace, Focusing guru,Eugene Gendlin, Tai Chi guru s, Arthur Goodridge, and Cielle Tewksbury and Artist, believer in magic, my mother, Isabel Hawes.
4.)With gratitude to my teachers: Arthur Goodridge, Cielle Tewksbury, Chunliang Al Huang,
All Tai Chi Masters as wekk as musicians, poets, dancers and philosophers.
My early training, BA and MFA, was in Studio Arts. I have curated the Art collections of three major corporations, founded the Art and Architecture committee in Boston, and set up art studios within a software company to help employees exercise the muscles of their intuition.
I worked very hard in my studio for more than fifteen years, and finally discovered a e sounew way. I have been playing in there ever since. For the last 30 years this playing has been my true growing space. Throughout my life as a practicing visual artist I have had a constant companion, Tai Chi. I have played with the Chi and its creative enegy just as I learned to play with it in the studio. Inhabiting the studio has been a biological imperative , a spiritual practice, something I thought I would always love to do!
What a surprise to find myslef where I am today no longer making Art.
I am still persuing advanced degrees in Walking in the Woods and playing wih the Chi, as I continueg to learn the Art of Letting go.
Thank You to all those who have helped make this sacred place one of growth and transformation, where new things are discovered and lost things found.
With thanks to all OUR TEACHERS
Guest Instructor
Guest Instructor
Guest Instructor
We welcome new ideas, new teachers, new inspiration! Want to work with us? Contact us to see how we can collaborate!