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Greetings!
Here we are on the cusp of another season change!
With it comes a reminder to look for what is shifting within the soil of ourselves and our lives. For me? I'm looking for new growth "out there" and seeking ways to tend what is blossoming within. This is shaping up into: different ways to serve my community, shifting the schedule of TEALarbor stories' offerings, and savoring time on the landscape.
I was invited to join in shared leadership at our local Interfaith Climate Circle. I have agreed to do so because the compelling work we have been doing in our community is consistent with this work at TEALarbor stories; both sit richly in the ecotone of science, spirituality, ecology, creativity, healing.
To make retreats more accessible for a broader range of folks, I have shifted this year's offering to a different month (May) and format (varying lengths of time). Please scroll down to the Important Dates section and look for Spiritual Ecology Retreats. Please note that the registration deadline is coming soon...next month on April 15th...and arrangements with me need to be set prior to then.
Yesterday morning a friend and I took our usual long weekly hike here on the island. It was a very chilly day with high winds. The seafoam-tinged water and rolling waves made our Puget Sound look like the ocean. A Bald Eagle flew low overhead and the fir trees' boughs were swaying far beyond their usual arc. All that motion in the landscape helped me find the stillness within; I left that hike with a renewed sense of priorities and clarity of vision.
Join us tomorrow for:
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Mar. 2nd (Mon.) Compassionate Spiritual Ecology: A Virtual Gathering via Zoom Free (register to get access) 7:00 – 8:30 AM Pacific
Please note the events and deadline coming next month:
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Apr. 6th (Mon.) Compassionate Spiritual Ecology: A Virtual Gathering via Zoom Free (register to get access) 7:00 – 8:30 AM Pacific
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Apr. 15th (Wed.) Registration Deadline for Spiritual Ecology Retreats (scroll down to May 6th - 20th for details)
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Apr. 25th (Sat.) Wild Church Suquamish United Church of Christ Free 10:00 – 11:15 AM
May the new season unfold for you in ways that are generative and life-giving.
Blessings,
Jennifer Wilhoit
Founder, TEALarbor stories
Important Dates
Learn more about all of these here.
Registration for most paid events closes one week prior to start date.
TEALarbor stories' new Spiritual Ecology Training is available with rolling admissions and one-on-one mentorship. Join us now!
Mar. 2nd (Mon.) Compassionate Spiritual Ecology: A Virtual Gathering via Zoom Free (register to get access) 7:00 – 8:30 AM Pacific / 9:00 - 10:30 AM Central
Hosted by Jennifer Wilhoit (TEALarbor stories Spiritual Ecology Training Founder/Mentor) and Brooke Gilley (Naturalist, Spiritual Ecology Training Graduate, Forest Bathing Guide)
Come gather with us for ninety nourishing minutes every first Monday of the month for an exploration of Compassionate Spiritual Ecology. Together we will engage the many ways of embodying Spiritual Ecology values, practices, and rituals to enhance our everyday connections with the sacred in the Earthy wild within and outside of us. Please bring a journal, pens, and a sacred-to-you item to each gathering.
Apr. 6th (Mon.) Compassionate Spiritual Ecology: A Virtual Gathering via Zoom Free (register to get access) 7:00 – 8:30 AM Pacific / 9:00 - 10:30 AM Central
Hosted by Jennifer Wilhoit (TEALarbor stories Spiritual Ecology Training Founder/Mentor) and Brooke Gilley (Naturalist, Spiritual Ecology Training Graduate, Forest Bathing Guide)
Come gather with us for ninety nourishing minutes every first Monday of the month for an exploration of Compassionate Spiritual Ecology. Together we will engage the many ways of embodying Spiritual Ecology values, practices, and rituals to enhance our everyday connections with the sacred in the Earthy wild within and outside of us. Please bring a journal, pens, and a sacred-to-you item to each gathering.
Apr. 15th (Wed.) Registration Deadline for Spiritual Ecology Retreats (scroll down to May 6th - 20th for details)
Apr. 25th (Sat.) Wild Church Suquamish United Church of Christ Free
10:00 – 11:15 AM
This is a nonsectarian offering that affords us quiet time on the landscape while being held in a sacred grove of red cedars.
May 4th (Mon.) Compassionate Spiritual Ecology: A Virtual Gathering via Zoom Free (register to get access) 7:00 – 8:30 AM Pacific / 9:00 - 10:30 AM Central
Hosted by Jennifer Wilhoit (TEALarbor stories Spiritual Ecology Training Founder/Mentor) and Brooke Gilley (Naturalist, Spiritual Ecology Training Graduate, Forest Bathing Guide)
Come gather with us for ninety nourishing minutes every first Monday of the month for an exploration of Compassionate Spiritual Ecology. Together we will engage the many ways of embodying Spiritual Ecology values, practices, and rituals to enhance our everyday connections with the sacred in the Earthy wild within and outside of us. Please bring a journal, pens, and a sacred-to-you item to each gathering.
May 6th - May 20th Spiritual Ecology Retreats (Specific dates per your schedule) $300. per person per day. Bainbridge Island, WA register: tealarborstories@gmail.com
Schedule a personalized retreat for yourself or your small group. Choose from one-day, two-day, or five-day timeframes. Scheduling is on a first-come, first-served basis within the May 6th-20th, 2026 window of time. Deepen relations with our more-than-human Earth neighbors, nurture a greater sense of wellbeing and wholeness, nourish yourself through creative and nature-based activities. Give yourself the gift of time on verdant Bainbridge Island exploring forests, conservation areas, saltwater beaches and flowing into greater ease and clarity about your next steps on life’s journey. This retreat is especially for anyone navigating life change, embarking on a significant project (or at a stuck point along the way), or who simply desires a nourishing retreat space. We will use the values, principles, and practices of Compassionate Spiritual Ecology as the foundation for our time together. Price includes guided activities and individual (project) support. Accommodations and meals not included. Registration deadline is Apr. 15th.
News
Read more about all of these here (or click the teal fonts below).
This morning (Feb. 7th), a member of Suquamish United Church of Christ and I offered our very first Wild Church. Though we're in a normal seasonal cycle of heavy rainpour, we had a great turnout! We sat and roamed beneath huge old Redcedars on the church property, finding the sacred in the more-than-human world and within ourselves. I very much look forward to our next one on April 25th.
The evening of Feb. 6th our Interfaith Climate Circle offered another Web of Life event entitled Reverence for Air. Through prayer, meditation, ritual, a short video, song and chant, personal story and poetry, climate research, and discussion, we explored how crucial AIR is - as well as the threats to and remedies for its health - in restoring our climate-challenged world.
On Feb. 4th we convened Harvesting the Natural Beauty of Interfaith Engagement via Zoom to celebrate (and in collaboration with) World Interfaith Harmony Week – A United Nations Official Observance. A small group of us gathered to explore the rich terrain of interfaith unity and collaboration through guided creative and nature-based practices consistent with each person's own spiritual or faith path. This was not a sectarian offering; it was intended to support people of all faiths (or none) in finding and deepening their relationships with others through peaceable, interdisciplinary practices that they created consistent with their specific beliefs. Our time together included poetry, silence, deep sharing, time outdoors, creative expression, prayers for the needy world, gratitude statements, and a discussion about the many ways we can engage with the interfaith movement and be of service to others.
After a holiday break, we resumed our Compassionate Spiritual Ecology Gathering via Zoom on Feb. 2nd. Our conversation focused on communication with More-Than-Humans and how we express our love to our nonhuman kin. We enjoyed hearing each other's stories after spending time out on the land in our respective locales (Pacific Northwest, Southwest, Northeast, Midwest).
BARN's Annual Holiday Bazaar event was fabulous! I sold my books and handmade collage greeting cards to friends old and new once again at Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network. This all-day event is always very festive and we artists also support each other by buying one another's goodies. What a great start to the dark winter season.
Tuesday Nov. 4th we convened the final session of Writing Through the Seasons: Autumn at Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. What a wonderful experience this has been! In addition to check-ins and next steps for how to continue writing on the landscape, we had a long stretch of time to create a nature journal page sitting in the autumnal glory of the day. We concluded by discussing various ways we can incorporate our direct engagement with the natural world into our everyday writing processes.
We co-hosted our final Compassionate Spiritual Ecology Gathering of 2025 in November. Our focus this month was on reverence, awe, beauty. For our outdoor portion of the session, we each went outside to create a piece of beauty using found, fallen nature bits. Everyone seemed to enjoy and find value in this practice.
Throughout the month of October 2025, I was delighted to have four of my handmade artist books on display at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts (BAC), a collaboration between Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN) and BAC. We displayed our work there in celebration of the Bainbridge Book Festival.
I'm so happy to tell you that my third book, Writing on the Landscape, is now being sold at Bloedel, our lovely local nature reserve.
The Spiritual Ecology Training has rolling admissions and one-on-one mentorship. You can join in anytime. Join us now!
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TEALarbor stories' newsletters offer inspiration, encouragement, beauty; inform about the connection between story, the natural world, and all things writerly; and promote professional writing, guiding, and peacemaking services.
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