Retreats

Sabbath Retreat for Women
Gilchrist Retreat Center in Three Rivers, MI

I am excited to be hosting a Sabbath Retreat, a time for women of all faiths and backgrounds to get away for relaxation, restoration, and spiritual deepening. Song Leader Mary Wilson and Yoga Therapist/Teacher Jennifer Lenders will be joining us during the retreat to help us connect more deeply with our bodies, minds, hearts and Spirits through song and movement. Come sink in and nourish your being on all levels during this “make it your own” retreat. 

Saturday, May 18th 9 am – 8 pm
Sunday, May 19th 9 am – Noon 
Stay overnight Friday to Sunday if you like or just come during the day. Vegetarian food is provided for Saturday lunch and dinner as well as a light breakfast on Sunday. You may come early and settle in for the whole weekend or just come as a commuter.

Retreat Registration:
$150 for Sat; $200 for Sat + Sun until March 15th
After March 15th: $175 for Sat; $225 for Sat + Sun
Register for the retreat here.
2 Work exchange scholarships available for the retreat or ask about sliding scale: Hollymakimaa@gmail.com

Cabins: $60 per night suggested donation through Gilchrist Center (shared cabins are available to reduce cost if you want to come with a friend). Located on 67 acres of woods and rolling meadows in Three Rivers, Michigan, GilChrist is the public retreat center of the Fetzer Institute. Cabin options available on a first-come, first-served basis and are limited to six so early reservation is recommended. Reserve your cabins at GilChrist here. 

How often in our busyness do we close off from the wisdom of our bodies, emotions, and Spirits–or each other–for the sake of productivity or others’ expectations? I know I fall prey to this pattern at times. This retreat offers a spacious opportunity for women to uncover their inherent wholeness and explore it. When we take time set aside to reconnect with ourselves, the natural world, and the loving expansiveness that holds us all, we find nourishment.

We sometimes we need the permission a retreat gives us to let go of all our roles and come empty-handed to meet ourselves anew. During the retreat, women will have the opportunity to explore how contemplative practices that alternate between movement, meditation, music, and reflective Self-inquiry can help us come home to our sacredness humanness. There will be ample opportunity for intimate group sharing as well as solo time for personal exploration. People of all body types and abilities are welcome. Women will have the option to engage at whatever level suits them in guided trauma-sensitive and culturally aware yoga, outdoor labyrinth and nature walks, meditation, journaling, and heart-opening group singing that will connect us to each other and to the collective.

Musical guest and song leader Mary Wilson will engage us with soul-stirring and deeply healing songs. Guest yoga therapist and teacher Jennifer Lenders will lead us in compassionate yoga. Holly Makimaa will lead us in opening and closing group rituals, a mindful meal practice, Self-inquiry, an optional outdoor labyrinth walk and journaling sessions as well as group sharing circles. All activities are optional so people can make the time their own.

Song Leader Bio: Mary Wilson.  Mary Wilson has been singing and writing songs for over 40 years. She was introduced to women’s circles in the early ‘90’s and has been leading songs in rituals since then. Her singing comes from a deep connection to Spirit and to her heart. She will be using chants/songs during the retreat to help facilitate participants in sinking deeper into themselves in preparation for deep listening and communion with the Divine within.

Yoga Teacher Bio: Jennifer Lenders, C-IAYT, E-RYT500, YACEP, RYS 200,
yoga therapist and teacher, will join us to offer an optional gentle yoga class during the Sabbath retreat. Her approach is therapeutic and deeply focused on awareness of our own daily life experience in the mind and body. This holistic practice includes raising consciousness of how we are affected by our environment, thoughts, and emotions daily.

Retreat Coordinator and Facilitator: Rev. Holly Makimaa has been facilitating writing and spirituality workshops and retreats for over 25 years. She maintains a private practice providing spiritual companioning, retreat facilitation, and transformational coaching to individuals and groups interested in seeking spiritual development. An interfaith and interspiritual minister, Holly is passionate about working with people of all faith and philosophical backgrounds and listening deeply for what moves them. She helps people connect with practical approaches they can use in their everyday lives to deepen their relationship with themselves, the Divine (called by many names), and the world.
A Registered Yoga Teacher, Certified Trauma Support Specialist, and allied mental health professional, Holly enjoys facilitating and teaching body-based spiritual practices that meet people where they are and point the way to freedom including but not limited to: Self inquiry, yoga, qigong, meditation, toning, prayer, sacred dance, storytelling, and writing.

Tailored DIY Retreats and Spiritual Companioning

What people are saying about working with Holly:

“Thank you so much for helping me create a wonderful time of rest and retreat. It was super  helpful to get clear about my intentions for my time off and to create structure to help me stay  grounded. I appreciated the journaling suggestions for how to determine what to include in my  time and wisdom about releasing expectations. I am grateful to have had your guidance and  support to help shape this healing time!” ~Female Professional Client, Ann Arbor

Offering individually tailored retreat formats for you to carry out anywhere you like (at home, at one of my networks of retreat centers or at a vacation spot of your choice). Whether you want a half day, weekend or longer retreat–or to simply learn how to build a weekly sustainable  mini retreat in your daily life, let’s chat. It is my passion to help people create a regular sabbath in their lives and to connect with the deep truth of themselves. I can offer private spiritual companioning via phone or zoom before, after or during.

Examples of Retreat Packages: Include 2 spiritual coaching/companioning sessions to use when you like, a tailored retreat and  a month-out follow up after your retreat.

-Rest and Play for the Overachiever and/or Pandemic-Weary Pilgrim
-Listening to Your Soul Call: Discerning Life’s Second Act
-Graceful transitions
-Grounding Down and Opening Up: An Embodiment Retreat
-Nature and Nurture: Reconnecting with Your Rhythm
-Life Story Retreat: Work with me on uncovering the sacred thread line in your life story for healing and hope
-Being Enough: The Portal to Inner Joy
-Tending the Fire: Rekindling Spiritual Practice

The Gift of Sabbath 

Last year, I was blessed to attend a training on creating a regular sabbath with modern day mystic, feminist, and social justice activist Mirabai Starr. Mirabai claimed a sabbath is the one spiritual practice she cannot do without. Her books, resilience after the tragic death of a child, and her vigilant social justice work are enough proof of the fruits of this practice for me.

A regular weekly sabbath taken by ourselves, with beloveds, or a little of both, can help us pause from striving and doing to “just being.” It gives us an opportunity to celebrate and be grateful for the wholeness that is now–even amidst a pandemic or other life challenges. There will always be more work to do. The famous line from the mystic Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well and in all manner of things, all shall be well.” was penned during the bubonic plague. What a time to be claiming all shall be well! Norwich helped people sink into to the ever-present, eternal good–always here now, always ready to embrace us as we are.

We are invited to take refuge in the midst of life’s storms to connect with what is life-giving however that looks for us. For some it is a sabbath meal once a week where we share from our authentic experience with beloved and inspire each other. For others it is time in nature. For others yet, it is embodied spiritual practices by ourselves or with others. It might include home rituals, rituals with our faith tradition/lineage, taking a long bike ride, playing board games with family, creating art, journaling, or taking a long bath by candlelight. There are hundreds of ways to creatively take a sabbath or sacred pause in our week.

Ever since I read the life-changing book, Sabbath by Wayne Muller during a retreat a few summers ago and attended Mirabai’s sabbath training, I am a changed woman. I never knew just how necessary it was to stop doing and just take stock of what is good and whole–to allow myself to enjoy no-thing! While I don’t do this perfectly and am still on a learning curve, there is no way I can go back to my old ways of being. My body has tasted “lightness of being” and it keeps calling me back home no matter how far I might stray during the day or week.

I love Mirabai Starr for unabashedly calling a spade a spade. Here’s a quote from her book about our reluctance to offer up all that we are carrying (for her, to a Divine Mother, but feel free to substitute any terms for Spirit that call to you most).

Gather your burdens in a basket in your heart. Set them at the feet of the Mother. Say, “Take this, Great Mama, because I cannot carry all this shit for another minute.” And then crawl into her broad lap and nestle against her ample bosom and take a nap. When you wake, the basket will still be there, but half its contents will be gone, and the other half will have resumed their ordinary shapes and sizes, no longer masquerading as catastrophic, epic, chronic, and toxic. The Mother will clear things out and tidy up. She will take your compulsions and transmute them. But only if you freely offer them to her. -M. Starr