Director's Message for October

Greetings,

To lead off, I want to thank Ralph Cavallaro and his staff for supporting the Men’s Center and Sacred Path by providing some innovative technical revamping of our newsletters and Internet capability. It has been our endeavor to expand our presence in the community and now we have the engine to drive the campaign to the next levels of communication. You will notice that the format of the newsletter is more user-friendly and that we now have a presence on FaceBook, MySpace and Twitter. You should be able to navigate through the newsletter and to our blog in an efficient and effective manner.

I also want to acknowledge Grant Mays and Rich Manners for the gift of service that they provide to us by shepherding the communication process through their invaluable roles in graphic design, editing and a myriad of other creative talents.

Secondly, our 22nd annual Fall Sacred Path Men’s Retreat is commencing in just a little over two weeks. I’ve gotten messages from some men that live out-of-town and who haven’t been to a retreat in a while indicating that they’re coming in for this one. I’m really looking forward to seeing them and welcoming back those that are among our yearly attendees.

Strongbear will once again mesmerize us with a story told in 4 parts, Christo Pellani and Grant Mays will enliven us with a drum circle for those wanting to become more proficient, and Albert Marrewa or Phillip Jennings will hold a session on martial arts. Nick Rath will be presenting his information on effective parenting. His workshops, during past retreats have been highly attended and have always garnered praise for the content and his style of communicating it. John Mafrici will also be conducting Rebirthing (aka conscious connected breathing) sessions. Among other events that are being considered: we welcome back Andrew Soliz and his cousin Thomas who will be pouring water for our Sweat Lodges, MCLA Associate Directors Dan Franklin, who will be facilitating a break-out session on relationships, and Steve Branker, who will conduct the powerful five-stage letter writing process to clear unresolved feelings; and of course there will be 12-step recovery meetings on Friday and Saturday and ample opportunity to create your own retreat experience. Dr. Howard Elkin, specialist in male-related health issues, is working on clearing his schedule so that he can once again speak to us. His last lectures left us begging for more information.

If you are planning to attend the retreat but have not registered as yet, please do so. If you’re on the fence, we hope you’ll hop off and join us. I will be presenting the last one-day event of the year that will be a Mindfulness Practicum for women on Saturday, November 7th at Holy Spirit Retreat Center. Registration forms for the men’s retreat and the women’s practicum are in this newsletter, on our blog and on our web site.

Lastly, the 56th Annual Group Psychotherapy Association of Southern California Conference on Mindfulness and Group Psychotherapy held over the weekend in Santa Monica attracted over 100 attendees. It was an honor to have been invited to give a two-hour presentation along with some luminaries in the field of Mindfulness. I’m looking forward to presenting on the topic of Mindfulness and the importance of having a daily spiritual practice at our forthcoming retreat.

That’s it for now. See you at Camp Gindling Hilltop and at Holy Spirit Retreat Center.

Namaste,
Stephen