GOLDEN HOUR:
a sometimes silent summertime retreat - long golden evenings, a prairie of practice.
July 16-20, 2025 at Red Clover Ranch
Driftless Wisconsin
* kind humans welcome *
Gather in the Softland, a place of meandering warmth and long, languid days. Linger longer with the willow sway and the morning birdsong. The night is so dark here, hundreds of millions of stars, we constellate our belonging, watch the sparks of the fire move toward the sky.
We come together to retreat but also to practice. How do we tend ourselves and each other through emergent intersections of crisis and challenge? Where do we find spaces of connection, play, deep remembering? How do we soften and expand enough to rest, to dream?
Days of spaciousness, connection and care, the folkwork of being together.
In contemplation and in circle, in silence and in story, we remember who we’ve been and who we are becoming. Who we can be together.
Hosted by Gwen and Libby, we gather in the spirit of restful connection, come to be held and come to tend your heart and come to be together(this is space for whatever needs space). A field of exploration, a sacred playground for feeling as a path to getting free, we’re here to remember the small revolutions that happen everyday in our bodies and our breath.
Let the sun touch our faces and warm our skin.
This is embodied, permissive, liberatory practice in service of a life of connection.
Join us for:
. sometimes silence: a dreamy, connective space for anyone seeking a quieter way to be with themselves + others
. swimming holes and sauna sessions and prairie walks
. heartfelt offerings, seasonal and elemental blessings
. craft & creative play without expectation
. generous space of no-plans
. contemplative moments to stoke curiosity and inspiration
. a sacred, intentionally held container for discovery and delight
. circles for deep listening and profound presence
. movement, rest, and lots of poetry with Gwendolyn Ren
. somatic centering, and breath + community keening with Libby Smith
no experience needed. all offerings are crafted with care and offered with love, and are, of course, completely optional.
Sometimes Silence:
Our retreat time will be held in the loving structure of “Sometimes Silence”, a flow between quiet, spacious days interspersed with circle practice and opportunities for intentional connection.
Subject to whim and weather, here is what I’m dreaming for this Spring gathering:
Arrival Day - a nourishing, grounding dinner. a gentle practice together, settle our bodies and our breath. meet each other. meet ourselves. set the tone and spaces of our time together.
Day Two - wake to quiet. do the dance of sometimes, mostly silent - all day and that night. practice trusting the spaciousness - alone together. connect in/with nature. breathe to remember. breathe to resource. breathe to release.
Day Three - quiet morning. stretch out. wiggle our limbs. let ourselves rest in the valley, walk to the orchards, lay our bodies on the ground. no rush here. nourish and nest, lay it all down. find spaces of circle and companionship.
Day Three - wake to quiet, and then let it rattle loose. spaces of circle, emergent connections. a trip to the swimming hole, take our bodies to the water. find yourself in conversation or preserve your silence.
Departure Day - gentle morning, gentle practice. decide what to take back with you.
Another way to be together, this format offers a shift from the habitual: the ways we communicate, connect, find belonging. An invitation to come together with the intention of quietude but without rigidity, expanses of time without pretense, small talk, or expectation.
This sort of structure is profoundly permissive, and allows for our time to be a healing bridge between the personal experience and the communal one. We are, and this is, held in the spirit of restful connection.
Golden Hour is five days and four nights at Red Clover Ranch.
The Driftless region of Wisconsin (Ho-Chunk / Potawatomi land), is an inspiring place where birds, organic farmers, writers, musicians, makers, and artists flock. Bypassed by the last Glacial Drift this area wasn’t filled in and reshaped, keeping instead a dramatic topography characterized by steep hills, forested ridges, and deeply carved river valleys.
Red Clover Ranch feels both intimate and expansive, offering two, one mile hiking trails, a stream, a wild apple orchard, three rock outcroppings, and many native grasses, flowers, shrubs, and trees.
Cabins are simple yet thoughtful in their design and share a central bathhouse featuring two full bathrooms, an outdoor shower, a sauna, and a communal porch. Located on a hill overlooking the valley there is a beautiful view and a short walk over varying terrain to the barns.
Chef Dani Lind is at the helm in the kitchen and offers us three locally sourced, farm to table meals a day, with a focus on healthy, seasonal whole foods.
Read more about Red Clover Ranch.
Register for GOLDEN HOUR
Guaranteed Single : $ 2200
Shared Room (full price) : $1800
Sliding Scale Registration (shared) : $1500 / $1300
Post Capitalist Relational Pricing Model:
Payment Plans available (up to 8 months if you register in January!)
Notes on Sliding Scale.
Read the FAQ before booking.
Additional financial support may be available through The Circle Way grant program.
Includes five days and four nights at Red Clover Ranch, all meals, offerings, special tokens and small delights. Travel to and from the retreat is not included. please read the FAQ before booking.
