From The Grove 2022 Retreat
You can find out more about Two Trees’ week-long in-person retreat in California offering by clicking here for an archived link.
“This retreat is a series of gifts to yourself, ones you give and ones thoughtfully curated by Reiko & Sherri. Master teachers, both of them, they guide participants through activities that are less about generating writing and more about how to get out of your own way.”
“Thank you, Sherri & Reiko, for a week that has been restorative, inspiring, and surprising. Lucky me!”
“The Grove Retreat provided excellent opportunity to recharge and regroup my writing practice, amongst warm and supportive fellow travelers on our word journeys.”
“As my first (2-year) pandemic in-person event, this retreat was a miraculous, magical circle of creative souls.”
“The 2022 Grove Retreat was my first retreat ever, and it was everything I hoped it would be. There’s nothing like being in a safe and supportive space with other writers. I had an extremely affirming and inspiration experience. Thank you, Sherri & Reiko!”
“The Grove provided me with the magic of time, space, and the energy of community to leap forward in my work, overcoming a block that’s held me back for years. Thank you, Two Trees!”
“I came wanting to see how to move forward in my story and I learned how to look at myth & archetypes to understand how to see my story. I was encouraged by everyone there and found that I wished for more time to explore how I can improve &continue my writing life.”
From our 2020 Virtual Retreat weekend with Bhanu, Elena, Reiko and Sherri
You can find out more about Two Trees’ first offering, The Grove virtual retreat, by clicking here for an archived link.
“What was amazing to me was how all the mentors created such an immediate sense of community. I didn’t realize how much I needed this. I made a friend or two. I took away inspiration and techniques to help me as I continue with my writing.”
“It was beautiful and refreshing. Nicely organized, capacious, imaginative, inspiring, serious, light, deep and generative. In the many years I have taken classes/workshops etc. this was by far one of the best. Each class bestowed robust and welcoming ideas and approaches. Each facilitator/teacher was amazing! I am profoundly grateful to all of you. Much has stayed with me and I can tell it will continue to resonate for some time.”
“This was a very restorative and grounding retreat. I was engaged, inspired, and felt a return to self which was much needed and appreciated. Thank you for creating and holding this space.”
“I loved the emphasis on creation and sharing. That’s what is missing after grad school and from canceled writing retreats or struggling writing groups. It was a great boost to motivation, building camaraderie, and planting seeds for inspiration.”
“The Grove was a vast and sheltering umbrella under which we could find refuge, inspiration, and each other. The cards echoed the need for this community by revealing the two trees to us in our group reading. I left with a sense of peace and a wandering mind.”
“I feel absolutely bathed in the wonder of this weekend. The connection with others, the magic of the workshops, and the return to writing with enormous, shared joy was a true gift and I carry it forward with delight.”
“The Grove is an orchard of delicious fruitful fragments from the rich divine lines of two trees. Dreams, lost words, mysterious words, and the oracles tales created a weekend of magic and a treasure grove of writing.”
“It was very intense. Personally, it felt like proof that my little child inside was always right and that I am not alone and that we all have to make this fruit sweet and beautiful and bountiful for each other. I was definitely tired this week, like those two days are still processing and it took a lot, but it gave this like …there IS a space now where we live together. That is powerful. Crazy wonderful powerful. I feel like a different person…the space time continuum sorta expanded and I’ve been living in a more expansive space all week.”
“I absolutely loved the experience of The Grove. It was an amazing opportunity to work with four talented authors. To have them share their techniques and experiences with us, and to learn from them, was an honor. I was happy to have a chance to focus on my creative energies for the weekend and I found my writing stretching and growing in new and exciting ways. I look forward to attending more future events from Two Trees!”
From Pele’s Fire*
*Pele’s Fire was the first in-person retreat run by our founding Two Trees mentors, held annually for three years on the Big Island of Hawaii. For archived images and information, click here.
“I arrived at Pele’s Fire with the first full draft of a manuscript in much need of tightening. I entered the space unsure of where to begin–completely overwhelmed by the hundreds of pages, thousands of words. I began each morning sitting on the bluffs watching sea turtles–a meditation of fire and water. I took the energy of the blue green black translucent sea into the workshops where the flow of the waves, and the gentle surface and dive of the turtle calmed the unsettled voices telling me my work was all wrong. After, much beautiful, direct, honest, and loving feedback I was able to sacrifice a bit of my blood to the altar of my work in an entirely new way. This came through as much needed cuts, focusing of the material, and deepening of imagery. Now the manuscript sings the song of lava rock, sea, Pele, lava tubes, coconut beaches, and most of all–the fierce love of three Master Teachers. It was an honor to sit in circle with their years of experience and passion for the craft of writing.”
“I went to Pele’s Fire with a manuscript that needed shaping. Through a multi-layered approach – workshops on structure, form, language, mapping, and generation– coupled with NIA classes that allowed me to integrate what I was learning into my body/mind/spirit, I came away from the experience with a greater idea of what I was writing and the threads of deeper themes I would follow in my work. Our group was a lively bunch of intellectual, heart-felt, spirited writers who inspired me every step of the way. Being in Hawaii was the icing on the cake—and Hawaii’s magic became part of our experience there. I would highly recommend Pele’s Fire to anyone who wants to deepen his or her understanding of his or her own work and set on fire by the creativity of others!”
“I will remember Pele’s Fire as a magical and transformative week in my writing life: The warmth of the sun on my skin, the soothing evening rain outside screened bamboo, the luscious morning pineapple, the inspiring circle of words and uplift shared in airy open spaces, all converged to touch my inner spirit. Upon my return to New York City, the “lava” within was unleashed, and I wrote nonstop to complete my MFA’s creative thesis in a week.”
“This retreat was unbelievable. Beyond my expectations. From the other writers there to the three leaders, to Kalani, to the different activities we did, to the dancing. It was perfect. I would definitely do it again and recommend it to my friends!
Mahalo nui for being you, for the gifts you share, and for inspiring me to write and to live fully.”
“Pele’s Fire cradles you in everything you ever wanted as a writer; fabulous food, workshops that renew your passion, invested instructors, kindred writers, amazing conversations, movement that allows you to be present in your body, and Hawai’i. Pele’s Fire healed me in ways I didn’t know I needed healing and pushed my writing in ways I didn’t know I needed to be pushed.
“THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO BE A PART OF SOMETHING SO LIFE CHANGING!”
“I’ve been accompanied by such a glow of gratitude for the gift of this week — the place and time and program and feedback and support — impossible to name all you gave us (even that great little flashlight — so symbolic of all the other gifts — no need to scrabble up rocky paths in the dark!)
Kept noting, from the flashlight on, constant other gifts of attention and caring that blew me away. I’ve never felt so cared for, anywhere! (Including the hand reached out to steady me across the lava field.) If this all sounds over-the-top, please know it barely scratches the surface of all I’d like to thank you for — and congratulate you on.
“What a success, by every measure — the warmth and connectedness of the whole group, by the end — wow. I’d love to come again and will plan on it!
“Thank you so much again! The week was everything I had hoped for. The way the jungle broke down all the shoulds, musts and scheduling rigor that usually comes with organized retreats – and the way the teachers went with it, made it happen while also following what unfolded. The papayas. One-on-one feedback. Meals together. The sea. Time alone to write.
“I wanted this retreat to be about getting me to write, celebrating what had been done once I arrived, fueling the next step, and reconnecting with a writing community. Funny, because that is exactly what happened – all in a lovely organic way that did not require me ‘making it happen’. Simply being me in the the week as planned made it happen.
“To me, this is an incredible success.”
“Shedding my skin. That is the best way for me to describe my experience at Pele’s Fire: Write to the Core. I was held by the land and the community in such a deep way that the intentions I had set for going to the retreat resulted in deep personal transformations occurring at my own core. Because of this, I am not only more connected to my writing, but I am more deeply connected to myself, to people in my life—which ultimately makes me a better writer. I feel like I’ve been cracked open, and I am truly listening to and interacting with my work in a way I never would have had I not attended Pele’s Fire.”
“Upon the completion of Pele’s Fire writer’s retreat on the Island of Hawaii, our group hiked to Kaimu beach in Kalapana, the youngest beach in the Hawaiian Islands where I found a small cave where I could sit and look out upon the beach, the crashing surf, and the other writers who were frolicking happily in the surf. From my perch at the edge of the cave, I smelled the salty fresh air, felt the cool misty water that was softly dripping from its roof, and I wrote a poem.”
“Reiko, I have so much gratitude for you and for giving me the opportunity to go to Pele’s Fire. I’m now, finally, able to create time to settle in to what you, Bhanu, and Elena taught me while I was there. Deep gratitude…”