Come join us!
Register at www.sixteenstones.net or send a message on Facebook and we’ll e-mail you a registration form.
Hope to see you on October 23!
Come join us!
Register at www.sixteenstones.net or send a message on Facebook and we’ll e-mail you a registration form.
Hope to see you on October 23!
Hello, Arizona Friends,
The time is NOW to register for our first Arizona Event – a 4.5 hour retreat on Saturday, October 23 at the Superstition Springs Golf Resort – Superstition Springs and Baseline Road in Mesa. We will have some facilitated discussion, workshop events and plenty of time for your relaxed, individual consideration of the theme, “Creating an Abundant Life During Trying Times.” We want to keep the experience individual and personal, thus seating is limited. The $75 registration fee includes lunch and hopefully you will emerge from the morning (hours: 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) refreshed, rejuvenated and with your creative juices flowing.
Please join us…you can register at www.sixteenstones.net or to obtain a registration form, e-mail cspackard@cox.net. Send the registration form and a check for $75 payable to Sixteen Stones to:
Sixteen Stones
c/o Wellspring Counseling Center
207 North Gilbert Road, Suite 107
Gilbert, AZ 85233
Past participants at our Utah events have reported them to be rejuvenating, revelatory, helpful, playful, creative, refreshing, and “an answer to prayer…I felt the whole day was a prayer…”
Come join us…find out what Sixteen Stones is all about. We’d love to see you there!
Often when I read the lesson for Sunday School it’s a rote blurred reading of material I tell myself I’ve heard a thousand times over. The words zoom past, but my mind is only partially engaged, as my to-do list and a myriad of other distractions compete for attention. Such was the case when I read the lesson last week: “Moses, creation story, I need to get that window fixed, what’s for dinner….” and away my mind goes!
The skill of mindfulness helps me, first, recognize, that I’m off in la-la land, and second, come back to the narrative at hand. I imagine that for the monks who are “good at this mindfulness stuff,” this recognition of drifting into “monkey mind” looks like a gentle epiphany of awareness, with a wise nod, a little smile and a knowing sigh. For me it looks more like this: “…window fixed, hey! CARRIE! What are you doing!? PAY ATTENTION!!”
And I’m back.
I read the words, “And I God, said: Let there be light; and there was light.” I imagine the scene from the stage of my own head: A giant thunderous God, high in the clouds, with huge billowing robes, wielding a golden sceptre; He speaks in a booming voice, commanding to the darkness, “LET THERE BE LIGHT!!” Rather than rush, I sit. I sit with the words. I sit with the images of my own mind. Curious and aware…
…and the story starts to settle and evolve. Like one of those dot-pictures: with focussed attention the random colors and blotches transform into a 3D image.
I start to see in this ancient biblical story my own journey. Darkness. I think of the times when I have felt small, hurting, and surrounded by enveloping, dense, darkness. How far away God’s Heavenly power has felt in those moments. As I continue to sit with the words on the page, a different image arises. I imagine the Savior, whispering to me, in deep empathy that comes from personal understanding. He is not far away, He is here. Right here. Reaching to me, looking me in the eyes, whispering, offering, “Carrie, let there be light.” I feel His love, and His tender respect for my agency. I sense the possibilities that He is offering if I will allow myself to receive it. Oh, how I want that light!
Sometimes people ask me why I am interested in “Mindfulness.” I notice that when my mind is present and focussed I am better prepared to hear those quiet whisperings. Practicing mindfulness helps me be more present and focussed. That’s valuable to me, even, no, especially, during my weekly reading of the Sunday School lesson.
~ Carrie Kelley
Loss is a fact of life for all of us – whether large or small, we are continuously needing to make peace with the reality of loss…and with the specific losses in our own lives. Loss is inherent in mortality – part of our life experience since Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden and through their transgression lost the opportunity to live in the presence of God.
When losses come to us, we are usually taken aback, depending on the strength or depth of the loss, sometimes stunned, bitter, devastated, even lost ourselves for a while. Sometimes we feel plunged, overwhelmingly, into deep water, submerged, unable to get a breath.
It takes time to find our way amid losses. Sometimes it’s a matter of transition to a new way of making a life in the midst of loss. Sometimes it means overcoming a loss and finding a different way. Oftentimes, in the midst of our losses, in our search for effective coping, we seek God in a different, more-focused way.
God draws near to us in our times of loss. He recognizes the potential power of these times to soften our souls, deepen our compassion, hollow out, through suffering, a larger capacity for kindness – and for joy. His presence is healing when we are open to receive it.
At Sixteen Stones we recognize the sacred space inherent in times of loss. We honor and respect the very real pain that accompanies it. We invite grieving as an appropriate response to any kind of loss, recognizing that mortality has many. In the quiet, private pondering time allows movement to a healthier hope for understanding our losses more completely, and finding a place of peace, even in the midst of pain. Our losses shape us, as much as any experience of life. Learning to work with loss peaceably is a healthy coping skill that will serve us throughout the journey of life.
LDS women spend a lot of time thinking about the quality of our lives and working to improve ourselves. Often, we question ourselves and wonder if we are being the best we can be – or dealing with our challenges in the healthiest possible way. Sometimes we feel alone and separate when we long to connect and share our lives and experiences. And we love to find new and creative ways to approach the day-to-day happenings and circumstances in which we find ourselves. We like to talk and think and be together.
Sixteen Stones recognizes these healthy longings and exists to foster growth and allow a shift in perspectives that will spur new ideas, build and strengthen relationships, and encourage focus and direction. We do this through our seminar retreats.
We know that sometimes in order to think best and gain needed perspective, women need a little time away from the regular routine of their lives. When this can occur in a lovely place, so much the better. Many women gather strength and courage when united with others of like minds. We enjoy gaining knowledge that can be applied to our challenges and refocusing with new vision on the landscape of our lives and experiences.
At Sixteen Stones we gather in manageable small groups to allow discussion and connection. As mental health professionals, we see that often what brings women to therapy is not pathology, but rather a hunger for new learning or perspective to enable progress and growth in their lives. So we work to create a non-pathologizing atmosphere where we can learn from listening to and sharing with each other – and also have individual time to be creative in the application of new awareness to our particular circumstances. We use words…but we also get beyond words into the core of the heart as we work with sand trays to gain understanding of the particular pathways of our own experiences.
We share food and laughter. We provide time to relax and time to think. There are moments of connection and moments of quiet. Sixteen Stones exists to provide safety and peacefulness, new ideas, and support for individual growth. It is indeed a day-long spa for the mind and heart…in an atmosphere conducive to the workings of the Spirit.
Comments from past participants talk less about the mechanics of the day than the engendered feelings:
“As I reflect on today, it felt like the whole day was a prayer. Where two or three are gathered in Christ’s name, He promises to join them. The Lord recognizes that we are seeking Him, and He joined us today.”
And:
“Coming together with everyone here was the “casserole” I needed. There are no words. I have received some answers today that I have been seeking for a long time. This has been a revelatory experience. It has been about going back to the roots, roots that bring in the Living Water.”
Most women leave our events reporting increased feelings of peace and direction, new perspectives and renewed focus. And a desire to return.
Our day-long retreats in Alpine, Utah involve very small groupings – no more than 10 to 12 people – and last a full day. We are bringing a new half-day retreat for a bit larger group to Arizona beginning in October. We believe we can provide much of the same benefit of the full day retreat to a larger group of women in a more condensed time frame and perhaps a more accessible location.
Our Arizona retreats will be held at the Superstition Springs Golf Resort, just off Highway 60 at Superstition Springs Boulevard in Mesa. Our desire is always to provide as much lovely natural scenery as possible to foster feelings of retreat and serenity.
The Arizona retreats will last from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and the charge of $75 includes lunch.
To register for a seminar/retreat in either Alpine or Arizona, please visit us at www.sixteenstones.net. Space is limited for all retreats, so register early.
Come join us for a new experience…and some interesting possibilities. We look forward to meeting you.
Welcome to the Sixteen Stones Blog. We’re excited to welcome new friends and re-engage with old ones. We’ve been in existence for a few years, offering one-day seminar retreats in Alpine, Utah. We are friends and mental health professionals and the mission of our association is to promote the emotional and spiritual resilience of LDS women. There will be much more to say in coming days, but for now, it seems appropriate to begin with the story that is our foundation – the scriptural story that fires our imagination and undergirds who we are, what we believe, and what we dream and imagine. Read this story, by our founder, and think about joining us as we journey. We hope you come along…
The Sixteen Stones Story
By Wendy Ulrich, Founder
There is an ancient story about a man whom God sends on a long journey to a fair but distant land. To get there he and his family must cross a vast wilderness and then a Great Sea. God teaches him to build barges that will withstand the mountainous waves and fierce ocean currents, and the man works hard to follow God’s directions and prepare for the perilous journey. He is not afraid to work, and he is not afraid to travel, but there is one thing he is very afraid to do: he is afraid to make the journey in the dark.
The man worries about the darkness of the journey the whole time he is building the barges. He keeps looking for a way to make a window or a fireplace in the barges, but he cannot find a way. Finally he asks God how he can have light for his barges. God says, “What do you want me to do? You cannot have windows for they would be broken to pieces by the crashing waves. You cannot have fire for it could not be controlled in a pitching vessel. What do you want me to do so you can have light?”
The man thinks about his problem for a long time. He thinks about fire, and he thinks about glass, the only sources of light he can imagine. He goes over and over them in his mind. Finally he remembers a place at the top of a high mountain where there is some unusual stone imbedded in the mountain rock. He climbs the mountain, one step at a time, until he comes to the place.
After the man has chipped the stone out of the mountain, he builds a fire so hot that it melts impurities away, leaving only clear, crystalline stones behind. After much effort, sixteen small, clear stones glow warmly in the heat of his fire. He removes the stones from the heat, watching hopefully as they continue to glow with a warm, bright light. But soon the stones cool, the light fades, and darkness returns.
He builds a bigger fire with a bigger bellows, hoping that this time the heat will suffice to imbue the stones with a lasting light. But once again the stones cool and the light fades. After all his work and effort, he is still left in the dark.
Finally the man has another idea. He gathers up the sixteen stones and carries them to the top of the mountain, trying to get as close as he can to the God he loves, and there he kneels to pray. “God,” he pleads, “please do not be angry with me for my request, for you are mighty and perfect and I have so much to learn, but you have commanded us to call upon you to receive what we desire and need, so here I am. Please, God, do not make us cross this great ocean in the dark. See these sixteen stones that I have molten out of the hard rocks. Will you touch them with your finger and make them shine so that we may have light for our journey?”
To the man’s astonishment, God’s hand appears to touch the stones one by one. They begin to shine with a pure, steady light. The man gasps at this unexpected vision and falls down in great fear! Even though he was a prophet whom God had called and led, and even though the man had asked God to touch the stones, he really had not imagined seeing the hand of God.
God comforts and reassures the man and teaches him with great love and tenderness. Then God gives the man two more stones, fashioned by God Himself. These stones are not just sources of light, but of vision. Through them God shows the man all that will happen to him and his posterity until the end of time.
God does all this so that this one man and his children might know God, and know that He would not leave His children in the dark. And so it was that, in more ways than one, this man found light that had never been seen before.
We, too, have oceans to cross and barges to build if we are to get ourselves and our loved ones to our own lands of fulfilled promises. We, too, are afraid of the dark, and quick to look to familiar sources for reassurance. When these fail us, we must try things we have never seen and plead for solutions we can barely imagine. Though this requires great effort and courage, we must do what work we can. We must bring God something to touch. And then we must open our eyes to see and receive the light – and the love – that Life offers us.