Mountain Stream invites you to a daylong facilitated by Constance Washburn & Aryeh Shell
Grounded in Gratitude: A Community Gathering for Grief and Connection in Turbulent Times ~
An introduction to the Work That Reconnects
Location: In Person, Nevada City Insight Center, 710 Zion St, Nevada City, CA 95959
Date: Saturday, July 12, 2025
Time: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Cost: Sliding Scale TBD. Limited scholarships available. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Pre-registration is required: details coming soon.
Your emailed payment receipt is your registration confirmation.
For questions and scholarship requests, email juanita@mtstream.org
What to bring: Please bring a bag lunch.
The daylong will be followed by a tea time to socialize ~ Tea, cookies and treats provided.
Daylong Description: How can we keep our hearts open and stay attuned to what’s ours to do as we witness and feel the impacts of a world in crisis? In this daylong community gathering we will take time to slow down, breathe and connect. We’ll engage in transformative practices and rituals designed to support us in exploring layers of grief and painful emotions so that we may metabolize them and re-awaken to our love for the earth and our passion for justice. Once we’re re-energized and reconnected within community, we are better able to feel into our role in the Great Turning.
The Work That Reconnects (WTR) developed by Joanna Macy, is a life-affirming transformative group process that supports us in alchemizing our painful emotions, awakening our creativity, rekindling our deep love for this world, and remembering our belonging. In the Spiral Journey of the WTR, we begin by grounding in gratitude, create space for honoring our pain for the world, open into seeing with new and ancient eyes, and then we go forth with renewed connection, courage, clarity and purpose.
We will be spending time both inside and outside on the land. The day will include sitting practice, creative arts, grief rituals, community building activities and reflection.
Constance Washburn is an activist, educator, director and a facilitator of the Work That Reconnects (WTR Network) living in California. Since 1994 she has attended many intensives with Joanna Macy. Constance has been leading WTR retreats and workshops in Northern California for many years. In 2017 we started the International Spiral Journey: a Facilitator Development Program.
Constance is one of the founding Weavers of the WTR Network, as well as a founding member of the Elders Action Network where she leads workshops and retreats for Elders in the WTR. She’s been a Buddhist practitioner since 1968, a yoga teacher and a Community Dharma Leader. Constance has an MA in Theatre and Education with studies in psychodrama and sociodrama, and spent years teaching and directing theater. She trained in permaculture and For 20 years she engaged in land-based work, working in farmland preservation and education on behalf of organic local sustainable food systems. Learn more about Constance
Aryeh Shell: I help to create fertile conditions for people to learn, grow, heal and transform together. As a curriculum designer, facilitator, trainer and coach, I support individuals and groups to find that seed of potential inside, water it with love and practice, shine light on what is possible, pull the weeds of old paradigms and flourish. I seek to dismantle the myth of separation and supremacy by developing collaborative leadership skills and cultures of belonging, knowing that our liberation is bound together. Having lived, traveled and worked in over 30 countries with hundreds of communities, I know the power of art, story, community organizing and dialogue to protect our biological and cultural diversity, awaken our radical imagination and address the social and ecological challenges of our time. My work is inspired by social movements around the world and rooted in the traditions of the Work That Reconnects, popular education, deep ecology, systems thinking, somatics and cultural activism. I speak fluent Spanish and have two MAs in Education: Equity and Social Justice and International Relations: Peace, Conflict and Security.
Currently the Climate Action Training and Community Engagement Director at the Pachamama Alliance. Previously the Director of Education and Training for Creative Action Institute, home of ArtCorps. Learn more about Aryeh