September 22nd – 26th, 2010 (with an arrival on the evening of September 21st)
Grace on the River Retreat Center, located near San Manuel, Arizona
Facilitators: Susanna Maida and Munro Sickafoose

The program is offered through the School of Lost Borders on a sliding scale. Total program cost:

    $1145 to $995 (includes $750 to $600 program fee and $395 for shared room and food)

Save $100 off your total cost if you prefer to camp. If you want to camp but would rather not bring your own camping gear, you can rent a tent, sleeping mattress, sleeping bag, pillow, and towel for a flat fee of $40.

Save $75 if you register and pay in full by June 22nd.

(A limited number of scholarships are available through the School of Lost Borders. This financial assistance, available on a first come basis, can help you further reduce the out-of-pocket cost for this intensive. Please inquire early if this is something you'd need in order to attend.)

Click here for Registration.

We've entered a pivotal moment in history. Evidence is mounting daily of the limitations of our way of living on this planet. At times the situation looks bleak. Yet all around us seeds of new possibilities are sprouting in the myriad ways culturally and spiritually creative people are responding to the needs of our times. You, no doubt, are one of those who feels the call to respond to a world in crisis.

It's clear that an old order is falling away and something, we don't yet know what, is emerging to take it's place. What emerges depends on us. And so more urgently than ever we're each being asked to step up and contribute to something bigger than ourselves in order to help co-create a more just, life-affirming, sustainable world that works for all.

We're talking about leadership here, yet this is so much more than the narrow definitions of leadership typically found in our culture. This is leadership that has the capacity to imagine a whole new way of living in this world – individually and collectively – and the courage to help make this vision happen. This is leadership that demands you bring all of who you are to the journey – body, psyche, mind, spirit. We call these four domains of who you are the Four Shields.

As we draw upon the wisdom inherent in these four aspects of the human experience, we connect more fully to the truth of who we are and discover how to lead in more authentic, life-affirming, sustainable, and impactful ways. 

Gathering in a community of others who identify as leaders and change agents, we will spend time together and time alone. We will go out each day onto the land to explore the four Shields of our own leadership and to open ourselves to the teaching offered by nature.

In the same way that the mirror hanging on our wall at home reflects back to us an image of how we physically appear to the world – an image that we cannot see on our own – our interaction with nature acts as a mirror to reflect back to us the many ways we engage with and participate in the larger world, on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels.

Participating in this intensive will bring you a greater sense of clarity and confidence and move you towards taking action on behalf of whatever vision you carry, action that will bring your outer vocational life into far greater alignment with your inner purpose and knowing. This transformation will then ripple out into your particular sphere of influence, helping to co-create the flourishing of a more conscious world that works for all. It will also reconnect you to nature in ways that will nourish your heart.

The intensive will begin at 8:00 a.m. on a Thursday morning, although we encourage you to arrive the previous evening so you have plenty of time to get settled. We'll end by 4:00 p.m. on the following Sunday afternoon and, as much as possible, it will take place outdoors. After a brief opening introduction and setting of the context on the first morning, we will move into setting our personal intentions for the program as well as taking a look at how we are now as leaders. We'll then begin our dance with the Shields the following day. Over the course of the next two days, we’ll cycle through each Shield as follows:

• Introduction to the Shield
• Solo time in nature immersed in and experiencing the Shield
• Sharing and mirroring of Shield stories
• Reflective time
• Interactive group discussion connecting it all back to leadership
  

On the last morning, we’ll begin our integration process. During this time, each participant will take her/his experiences in each of the Shields and weave them together into a whole Shield system. Doing this allows us to see where we are strong in our Shields, where we are less developed, and what we might need to do to bring about greater balance in our lives. We'll close with an incorporation process in which we identify ways to anchor our new learning and insight into our everyday lives as leaders, the challenges and obstacles we'll likely face, the kind of support we'll need to nourish and sustain us, and the "next steps" we're ready to commit to.

While conceptually similar to the Four Shields of Leadership Retreat, this program is open to both men and women. It covers similar ground although at a more accelerated pace so it's well-suited to those whose time and or financial resources are more limited.

While the intensive involves spending individual time in nature, no previous wilderness experience is required and no extreme physical exertion is involved. Each participant will be able to choose how deeply into nature she/he feels comfortable wandering. So one participant might feel inspired to take a three-mile hike during solo time while another might choose to sit quietly under a tree.