Category: Spring Retreat

From Vulnerability to Intimacy: Exploring the Threshold

May 12-14, 2023

The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center, Highlands NC

3 Day/2 Night Package (Friday through Sunday)

Bunk House (shared room up to 4 people): $190.00

Lodge or Duplex Cabin (double occupancy): $220.00

Single Occupancy (private room): $340.00

For All Rooms add Mandatory GSV program fee: $35.00

Register Now!

On the threshold, the entire past and the endless future rush to meet one another.
—Gunilla Norris

Dear Siblings,

I have often been intrigued by the line between vulnerability and intimacy — just how vulnerable do I need to be to have authentic intimacy? You are invited to join me at the Gay Spirit Visions 2023 Spring Retreat to explore the various thresholds one can find during the process of moving from vulnerability to intimacy. We will engage with each other to learn more about making our way through our thresholds — “the magnitude or intensity that must be exceeded for a certain reaction, phenomenon, result, or condition to occur or be  manifested” — and enter deeper into vulnerability and intimacy.

Financial assistance, in the form of scholarships, is available. The financial assistance application submission deadline is April 30. Our hope is that anyone who resonates with our mission and community, and who has the desire to attend, can join us at our gatherings. To that end, we offer financial assistance through the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund. Please go to the Financial Assistance page on the Gay Spirit Visions website for more information about financial assistance (scholarships) and for a link to the GSV financial assistance application form. Remember, the financial assistance application submission deadline is April 30.

Registration is now open via the GSV website, so please join us. To inquire about the availability of a private room, which are available on a limited basis, please call The Mountain office at (828) 526-5838.

Douglas Argue
GSV 2023 Spring Retreat Convener

Register Now!

From Dirt to Dynamic

May 13 – 15, 2022*

The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center, Highlands, NC

3 Day/2 Night Package (Friday through Sunday)

Lodge (shared room) $210.00 plus tax

Cabin (shared room) $210.00 plus tax

Bunk House (shared room up to 4 people) $180.00 plus tax

Register now!

Registration closes Tuesday, May 10

Dear Siblings:

Soon we will gather at The Mountain and embrace the energies and entities conspiring for our continued joy. Breathe in deeply and take in the idea that you are worthy and loved in grace.

You have been told in the past that there are certain requirements for you to be loved. This is simply not true. You are loved simply because you exist.

You are a part of all that is, so to not accept love for yourself is the same as not loving everything. The reason it feels bad to love one thing and not love another is because that is not the truth about love.

We all have a decision to make. Do I exist in a universe that collaborates for my peace and joy or not? In one case you live as though everything is a miracle, in the other, nothing is a miracle. Which choice benefits you the most?

Life is a gift. A miraculous gift that is given to us one moment at a time. Occasionally the wrapping paper the gift comes in is very unattractive. But there is a precious jewel enclosed in every moment of existence.

We will learn during our time together how we can take our past and reframe it to bring us new life. We have wisdom because of our past. What we have come through has given us the strength and knowledge to truly soar in the present and into the future.

Let us all come together as a family. Let us combine our grand wisdom. Let us empower ourselves through community and connection. It is our calling to love the world uniquely, to empower it, and to show it a new way so that everyone can find peace, joy, and love.

Love, Peace, Release,
“Angel” Pete Cossaboon
GSV 2022 Spring Retreat Convener

Register now!

Registration closes Tuesday, May 10

* May 13 — Registration starts at 3 PM and Program starts at 6 PM
May 15 — Program ends after noon lunch

From Dirt to Dynamic

May 13 – 15, 2022

The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center, Highlands, NC

3 Day/2 Night Package (Friday through Sunday)

Lodge (shared room) $210.00 plus tax

Cabin (shared room) $210.00 plus tax

Bunk House (shared room up to 4 people) $180.00 plus tax

Register now!

Hello GSV Family!

Well, spring is officially here, although I don’t know that Mother Nature got the message!

Our 2022 Spring Retreat will be here before you know it, and I am so excited for all of us to gather. This retreat will be an opportunity for us to learn from each other, to connect with the powerful forces at The Mountain, and to tap into our own wellness and wisdom.

Accommodations are filling up fast, and this will be a wonderful way to make 2022 a year of dynamic healing and growth. Conflict is a part of the natural order of the world, and we will be looking at how to take all the negative we are surrounded by every day and transform it into energy for the future. Think of it as energy recycling!

Mother Earth is a perfect teacher of how to take the discards of the past and transform them into resources for future growth. How can our pain, disappointments, and failures be our most prized possessions? We all have the opportunity to take wisdom from life’s lessons. Wisdom is priceless, since it cannot be purchased for any amount of money.

The Serenity Prayer asks us to know the difference between what we can and cannot change. Hidden in that message is our ability to change our relationship with what we can and what we cannot change. If we change our relationship with what bothers us to a point where it no longer bothers us, is it still a problem?

Each of us truly has the ability to make the decision of what we focus on and what the meaning of everything is. These two decisions either make us a powerful voice in our own life or powerless to outside forces.

Financial assistance, in the form of scholarships, is available. The financial assistance application submission deadline is April 29. Our hope is that anyone who resonates with our mission and community, and who has a desire to attend, can join us at our gatherings. To that end, we offer financial assistance through the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund. Please go to the Financial Assistance page on the Gay Spirit Visions website for more information about financial assistance (scholarships) and for a link to the GSV financial assistance application form. Remember, the financial assistance application submission deadline is April 29.

Please note! This retreat will fill up quickly. Register today and let us join together and create a whole new world starting with each of us.

Let us gather, recognize each other’s power, and tap into our own innate strength.

Love, Peace, Release,
“Angel” Pete Cossaboon
GSV 2022 Spring Retreat Convener

PS:
I made a video describing the retreat

From Dirt to Dynamic

May 13 – 15, 2022

The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center, Highlands, NC

3 Day/2 Night Package (Friday through Sunday)

Lodge (shared room) $210.00 plus tax

Cabin (shared room) $210.00 plus tax

Bunk House (shared room up to 4 people) $180.00 plus tax

Register Now

Hello GSV Family!

It is finally here! The Gay Spirit Visions 2022 Spring Retreat is just around the corner and we could not be more excited. The title for the spring retreat this year is From Dirt to Dynamic. First, I want to ask you a couple of questions. Are you able to experience joy in the darkest hours of your life? Do you feel empowered or completely overwhelmed by the world situation? Well, I am here to tell you that joy is available to you in every moment and that you get to decide how the world affects you.

How do we find joy and empowerment in this crazy world full of pain and dismay? I am so glad you asked, because that is exactly what we will be exploring! Are you ready to take the negative from yesterday and use it for growth and expansion? I am too. From within ourselves, we will be utilizing tools and resources that help us change our relationship with the outside. It isn’t about that which is coming at you, it is about how you interpret it. Let’s learn the language of divine joy and start singing the song of peace and fulfillment with the uni-verse (one-song).

Oh, one more thing. I need your assistance! I am looking for workshop leaders with tools and resources that facilitate positive change. Some ideas for these workshops could include, but certainly aren’t limited to:

• Ho’oponopono — Hawaiian technique of forgiveness and release
• The Work of Byron Katie
• Cutting cords
• Journaling your dream life
• Breathwork
• Release through dance or body movement
• Body work of any kind
• The power of the mind
• How emotions fuel our future
• You and the quantum field

Do you have an idea for a workshop that helps our brothers and siblings to experience positive change? Please let me know by contacting me at
[email protected]. Thank you!

Financial assistance, in the form of scholarships, is available. The financial assistance application submission deadline is April 29. Our hope is that anyone who resonates with our mission and community, and who has a desire to attend, can join us at our gatherings. To that end, we offer financial assistance through the Raven Wolfdancer Financial Assistance Fund. Please go to the Financial Assistance page on the Gay Spirit Visions website for more information about financial assistance (scholarships) and for a link to the GSV financial assistance application form. Remember, the financial assistance application submission deadline is April 29.

Please note! This retreat will fill up quickly. Register today and let us join together and create a whole new world starting with each of us.

Love, Peace, Release,
Pete Cossaboon “Angel Pete”
Convener, GSV 2022 Spring Retreat

PS: I made a video describing the retreat

Growing the Seeds of Hope and Reconnecting with

Self, Sangha, & Sacred Cosmos

May 7-9, 2021

A virtual Zoom-based experience

$35 registration fee

Additional donations for the GSV Scholarship Fund and/or The Mountain can also be made in the registration portal.

Register now!

Dear Siblings,

Instead of sending out a “last call for the conference,” I wanted to write you a personal note. I have a question for you.

Why come to one more Zoom conference, when everything in you wants to rush out into the world and be together with people you love?

Thirty years of experience as a breathworker, trauma therapist, and spiritual healer have taught me:

integration is everything —

And integration absolutely requires a few moments of catching our breaths together, harvesting our learning, healing our wounds, and setting a new course together.

And this is a chance to do exactly that.

It’s like the time at the end of a breath session, when the music quiets and you rest from the hard work of catharsis, journeying, and visioning … and let everything you’ve experienced soak into your bones and crystalize into a few clear insights to guide your life as you rise.

We’ve created the GSV Virtual Spring Retreat to do just this. I’ve asked some of the most seasoned teachers, facilitators, and mischief-makers in our community to come together, to share their own stories of hope and reconnection, and support you in reflecting on your own. People who’ve done the hard work of integrating their own journeys and the even harder work of helping others, do the same.

We’ve all been through it this year. Many of us ache to “get back to normal.” The funny thing is, though, we don’t “get back to normal” after traumatic experiences — we either heal and grow, harvesting our own discoveries and changing the course of our lives — or we stay braced against the powerful changes inside ourselves and around us.

There is extraordinary power in our community. I hope you’ll join us in harnessing and celebrating it.

And I think it’s gonna be a helluva lot of fun.

Come, come, whoever you are! Wanderer, worshiper, lover of men,
Whatever your race, class, culture or color,
serostatus or sexual wounds,
whatever you struggle with, heart, mind, body or soul …

whether you’re gay, bi, questioning, queer, or transgender,
single or partnered, poly or simply perplexed;
religious or atheist, spiritual, awestruck,
addicted, recovering, or reaching for heaven on earth,
outrageous or quiet, flamboyant or shy, prophetic or peaceful,
elder or newbie or somewhere between …

we welcome your sorrows, we welcome your joys,
we welcome your hunger, we welcome your gifts
we welcome your stories and questions and yearnings …
we welcome you home.

Registration closes on Wednesday, May 5

Register now!

See you in Zoomland! Oh, and bring a rock.

Hunter Flournoy
GSV Spring Convener

PS: The opinions expressed above are solely the conclusions of the convener, arising from his own rather unusual if somewhat extensive experience, and should not be taken to represent the opinions of the larger community of GSV, the GSV Council, its membership, humanity, or the galactic federation of planets … 😂