Dear Brothers,
Come join us for friendship, brotherhood, and a heart-centered community experience. Renew, replenish, and restore yourself at the 2016 GSV Winter Meditation.
It could be one of the most significant retreats you will ever attend. Why? The energy you flow immediately affects your physical health, your emotional health, your human interactions, your value in the world, and your connection to Spirit. The energy you flow, the emotion that beams from your heart, changes EVERYTHING in your life.
AND you have total creative control over it…through spiritual practice. In this retreat we are going to have some real significant conversations about it.
Please join us.
“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” —The XIV Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness
“Be happy, for your only function here is happiness.” —A Course in Miracles (Lesson 102)
“Unconditional happiness is the highest technique there is … This is truly a spiritual path, and it is as direct and sure a path to Awakening as could possibly exist … Events don’t determine whether or not you’re going to be happy. They’re just events. You determine whether or not you’re going to be happy.” — Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul
“To be (happy) … or not to be (happy) … THAT is the question.” — Shakespeare/Delgado
Tony James, Convener
Cami Delgado, Keynote Speaker & Co-Creator
Jim Stratton, Co-Creator
Category: Conferences
Annual Gay Spirit Visions conferences.
Call for Participation: Annual Planning Retreat
GSV Annual Planning Retreat
January 17 – 18, 2016
Sunday afternoon – Monday afternoon
No cost for participants*
Every year, the Council of Elders of Gay Spirit Visions sponsors a Planning Retreat for the Council and all working groups. Participation is open to those who currently serve on a work group, those who have attended at least one GSV conference, or to individuals that have received prior Council approval.
We especially encourage work group liaisons and active work group members to attend. Expenses for the Sunday overnight stay and meals will be paid by the Council. You may attend the Planning Retreat without attending the Winter Meditation.
Read more about the annual Planning Retreat >>
Register for the Planning Retreat >>
* Planning Retreat registration costs are paid for by the Council of Gay Spirit Visions.
2016 GSV Winter Meditation: Happiness
GSV 2016 Winter Meditation
Happiness: Positive Emotion and Creating a More Vibrant GSV, LGBT Community, and World
January 15 – 17, 2016
at The Mountain, Highlands NC
Two Nights: $226.48
[standout-css3-button href=”http://www.themountainrlc.org” opennewwindow=”false”]Register Today[/standout-css3-button]
Dear Brothers,
Come join us for a conversation on happiness, true happiness. Come to this heart-centered, upbeat, uplifting, inspiring, experiential, interactive, energizing, and enlivening retreat.
Why?
People who live mostly in positive emotion are healthier and live longer lives. They make better friends and have a wider circle of friends. They make better spouses and have better relationships and marriages. They are smarter and more creative. They are more resilient—they bounce back faster after adversity. And they are also kinder, more loving, more generous, and more giving.
Happiness does not happen by chance—it happens by choice. It is a practice, and the more you practice, the better you get at it. Anyone can be happier, and happier, and happier, if they choose.
This workshop provides the vessel for you to examine and begin to dissolve obstacles to happier living and gives you insights as to how you can be a more valuable presence in GSV, the LGBT community, and the world.
“To be (happy)… or not to be (happy)…THAT is the question.”
— Shakespeare/Delgado
Tony James, Convener
Cami Delgado, Keynote Speaker & Co-Creator
Jim Stratton, Co-Creator
2015 Fall Conference: Variety Show
Dear Brothers,
Thank you for registering for the upcoming 2015 GSV Fall Conference, positive anticipation is rising daily. Can you hear the drum roll? The rustle of yards of fabric?
We in the entertainment committee certainly can, and are inviting you to sign up for the 2015 talent show. Performance art is a form of healing, of growth, of sharing and bonding with brothers and as the conference theme suggests, this may well be the wildest show ever!
Some of you are visual artists, not performers. We’re looking for several visual artists to do signs announcing the different acts. Can we count on you? Let us know.
For the performers, the sign-up sheet will be posted on the bulletin board of the Commons Room (behind the dining room). Please sign up ASAP to assure a spot and please keep in mind the following:
- Acts must be no longer than 6 minutes. After that, a swarm of stage faeries will make you disappear, it won’t be pretty…we promise.
- Attending rehearsal is mandatory; no act can appear without rehearsal.
- For piano accompaniment, please send your sheet music to David Berger in advance [email protected] and schedule one-on-one rehearsal time upon arrival.
- If you’re using a musical track, please present it to the sound tech at rehearsal.
- Acts work best when enhanced with costumes, props, music, and movement. Keep this in mind as you prepare your material.
- Freedom of expression requires that both performers and audience keep an open mind and a sensitive heart; we ask that everyone be mindful of this.
See you at the Mountain!
Cami
2015 Fall Conference: Conversations About Discomfort and Safety
In addition to the two sessions by our Keynote Speaker, Buddy Wakefield, we have four conversations that will be moderated by members of our tribe. The topics are derived from conversations at conferences over the past few years and from online postings that generated significant interest. You’ll be able to attend two of the following conversations:
The Discomfort and Safety of Surviving
with host Scott Dillard
Since the advent of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, many of us have lost a good number of friends, family, and partners. Some of us have carried on our lives as we witnessed the passing of those we loved and also worried for our health at the same time. Still others have wondered, “Why them and not me?” It is a sort of survivor’s guilt that makes us wonder about our own mortality, the fairness of life, and how we continue to live with loss.
We will engage in a conversation that seeks to honor those we lost, those we carried for, and our own sense of self in these most trying of times. This is more than a chat. We will do some writing, some sketching, some storytelling that uncovers the emotions we each feel as survivors of the plague. Come prepared to share at our own level of comfort and to contemplate the shared sense of community that living through this has meant.
The Discomfort and Safety of Aging
with host Joe Kiser
As I move from one decade to another, I have experienced many changes on many fronts…and backs. How I experience life has evolved. Emotionally, physically and spiritually. From wild to mild and back to wild again. As my body, mind and spirituality evolve, I am presented with opportunities to embrace, deny or adapt. Additionally, questions have arisen for me. What responsibility, if any, do i have for the next generation? What, if anything, can I offer to future generations?
During this session, I will share some of my experiences and the impact of my decisions and reactions. I would also like to hear the experiences and expectations of others.
The Discomfort and Safety Around the Gender and Sexuality Continuum
with host Greg Hummel
Man, woman, straight, or gay. Do you remember when these were our only options? For some, these identifiers are enough. But for many of us, these labels are limiting and leave us left out of the conversation. At a time in history when women like Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox are creating (much needed) ripples in our social fabric, we sometimes find ourselves struggling to keep up. Come join me in confronting our discomfort around gender identity and sexuality. Together we can create an even safer GSV environment and a safer world.
The Discomfort and Safety of Victimization and Oppression
with host Hunter Flournoy
Join us for a discussion of our experiences of victimization and oppression, and how we perpetuate these experiences even within our own community by oppressing each other, and projecting the role of oppressor onto each other. Explore how we can step off of the drama triangle and empower ourselves and each other.