You Don’t Have To Do It Alone

The Power of Friendship

A Weekend Retreat and International Book Launch with Mark Nepo

Friday, August 16 – Sunday, August 18, 2024

Single - $565 | Double - $515 | Commuter - $365
(Overnight accommodations include ensuite bathroom and all meals from Friday dinner through Sunday breakfast. Commuter rate includes Friday dinner and Saturday lunch and dinner.)

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About this Offering

This retreat will center on Mark’s new book, You Don’t Have to Do It Alone: The Power of Friendship (St. Martin’s Essentials, July 2024). Our time together will explore the gift and spirit of friendship, for friendship is indispensable. We may discover our dearest friends in the dark labyrinth of seeking truth together. Or, in a moment of feeling vulnerable, we may feel safe in the care of some trusted other. We often come upon our deepest friends when taking the long way home, when forced to put down our differences, when humbled to admit that we haven’t a clue where we’re going or how to get there. In the raw and tender space of such honesty, the net of friendship is woven. In fact, the root of the word friendship means “place of high safety.”

Throughout the weekend, we will look closely at the discovery of our kinship, the nature of friendship, the inevitable trials by which our bond is strengthened or broken, the acceptance of our humanness, and the conduit that lasting friendship becomes to the larger forces of life. 

“After a lifetime of trying to be a good friend, I feel called to affirm the spirit of friendship, to praise what it takes to love another well, and to better understand how friendship helps us live. So Come. Walk with me as we listen for how the spirit of friendship opens us to each other. Until we find the place of high safety where the most tender among us can show who we are, so we can come alive together, and affirm to each other that you don’t have do it alone.” —Mark Nepo

About the Presenter

Mark Nepo is beloved as a poet, teacher, and storyteller. As the New York Times’ bestselling author of The Book of Awakening, he has been called “one of the finest spiritual guides of our time,” “a consummate storyteller,” and “an eloquent spiritual teacher.” His many books have been translated into more than 20 languages. He has taught for more than 40 years in the fields of poetry and spirituality and is a columnist for Spirituality & Health. In 1987, Mark was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma. Since then, he has been a student of all paths. His work explores the common center and unity of all spiritual traditions, focusing on how we can experience that unity when we embrace the blessing of vulnerability, lean into life and hold nothing back.