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WONDERING Fall Retreat with Marty McConnell and Lindsey Dorr-Niro


  • Red Clover Ranch 44727 County Rd X Soldiers Grove, WI 54655 (map)

Take three nights/four days to imagine forward and ignite possibility in your life amid the tall pines and fields of grass, fed on glorious local foods and resting in the sweet Driftless quiet. 

You can expect:
* guided meditations
* tarot discovery
* reflective writing 
* tactile imaginative practices 
* connection with the natural surroundings
* delicious, professionally prepared local food
* space for rest and connection with self and others

Through MEDITATION, we’ll quiet our minds and expand our field of thought.
Through TAROT, we’ll draw on intuition to explore our vast and vibrant possibilities.
Through REFLECTIVE WRITING, we’ll use playful inquiry to get beneath the surface and shake the dust off our imaginations.
Through TACTILE IMAGINATIVE PRACTICES, we’ll get our hands dirty and make ephemeral art that comes from and returns to the land.

Among all of that, we will rest. We will connect with ourselves, each other, and the land. We will wander, wonder, and let ourselves be fed by the trees and fields, locally sourced food, and caring community. 

No prior experience with meditation, writing, or art-making required!

Come wonder with us. Your life deserves it.

Your facilitators

WONDER•ING is co-designed and co-led by Lindsey Dorr-Niro (transdisciplinary visual artist, arts educator, and Indo-Tibetan Buddhist scholar/teacher) and Marty McConnell (writer, arts educator, and creativity coach).  

Lindsey Dorr-Niro is a transdisciplinary artist and educator. She received her MFA from The Yale School of Art and BFA from The University of Wisconsin-Madison, and currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has studied and practiced within the Gelugpa school of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism since 2009 and taught meditation since completing her 300-hour yoga teacher training with the Yoga Studies Institute in 2011. Her meditation studies include work with the Diamond Mountain, Tara Mandala, and DharmaOcean lineages. Her focus is on somatically embodied practice, with trainings cultivated through Awakening the Body, Awakening the Heart, and The Somatic Practice of Pure Awareness. She is currently studying with Ralph De La Rosa, whose work bridges Tibetan Buddhist meditation/mindfulness practice with Internal Family Systems, attachment theory, and somatic experiencing to address and heal trauma. 

Marty McConnell provides vital coaching and consulting services to people and organizations, supporting them in being planful, proactive, and powerful in building the lives and worlds they envision. She is the author of when they say you can’t go home again, what they mean is you were never there, winner of the 2017 Michael Waters Poetry Prize; her first full-length collection, wine for a shotgun, received the Silver Medal in the Independent Publishers Awards, and was a finalist for both the Audre Lorde Award and Lambda Literary Awards. She is the author Gathering Voices: Creating a Community-Based Poetry Workshop (Yes Yes Books, 2018), and the co-creator and co-editor of underbelly, a web site focused on the art and magic of poetry revision. In her work with organizations, groups, and individuals, she utilizes an inquiry-based approach grounded in curiosity, a somatic approach to intuition, and an unshakeable belief that the answers we seek lie within our brilliant ultimate selves.

Learn more about Lindsey here and here, and more about Marty here and here