In a world of competing voices that call to us and compete for our attention at all hours, attending a Hopework retreat was a bit like leaving home to build an island of decency with others.
A Hopework retreat was a space apart from everyday life in which participants slowed down, reflected on, and had conversations on things that mattered to them. In these conversations, every participant had an equal voice. We attended to being present to others in our listening and held fast to what was good in our lives. We carried home the lessons remembered and learned.
Hopework facilitators invited participants to use processes that helped groups explore complex topics. They asked participants to share stories of their personal experience and perspective and to do it from the head and the heart. The stories told and heard unfolded around the circles, side-by-side without challenge or debate, and stimulated us to see with fresh eyes, helped us experience new hope, and inspired us imagine bold action for being more ourselves in the world.
Hopework LLC developed and delivered educational retreats and workshops designed to nurture human development, create meaningful lives, and contribute to a more humane, just, and equitable world.
Hopework ended business in 2019/
Living inside hope
Codi, here’s what I’ve decided: the very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right inside it, under its roof.
From Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal Dreams (New York, HarperCollins, 1990), p. 299.