The Turning Year Retreat

The Turning Year Retreat

What if winter wasn't something to get through?

An invitation to slow down, reconnect with nature and discover the quieter beauty of winter.

What if we stopped wishing the seasons away?

We spend so much of our lives resisting the season we're in.

We long for warmer days. We complain about the darkness. We count down to spring. We fill the winter months with artificial light, central heating and distraction, doing everything we can to continue life at exactly the same pace.

But nature doesn't.

The trees let go.

Growth slows.

The landscape becomes quiet.

And beneath the surface, life continues, preparing for what comes next.

Perhaps there is something we can learn from that.

What if, rather than treating winter as something to endure, we began to appreciate it for what it is?

What if we stopped waiting for the next season and learnt to live more fully in this one?

That is the invitation at the heart of The Turning Year.

We are not separate from nature

However sophisticated our lives have become, we remain part of the natural world.

Our bodies are made from the food the Earth produces.

The water within us has travelled through clouds, rain, rivers and oceans.

Every breath is an exchange with the living world around us.

Our bodies still respond to light and darkness, activity and rest, warmth and cold.

And yet somewhere along the way, many of us began to live as though nature were something separate from us.

Somewhere we visit.

Somewhere we go for a walk.

Somewhere we escape to when life becomes too much.

But nature isn't somewhere we go.

It is what we are.

A different kind of winter retreat

On Saturday 12 December, as we approach the winter solstice, I will be welcoming a small group to Sculpture by the Lakes for the first Turning Year Retreat.

This is not a day of lectures about nature, nor an attempt to escape the realities of everyday life.

It is an opportunity to step away from the constant demands of doing, achieving and planning, and experience what happens when we allow ourselves to slow down.

Throughout the day, we will explore our relationship with the natural world through a combination of gentle, immersive practices.

These will include:

• Mindful connection with nature — learning to notice the extraordinary details of the winter landscape through our senses.

• Breathwork and gentle practices — bringing our attention back to our bodies and the present moment.

• Guided reflection and journaling — exploring our own relationship with the seasons and what winter might teach us about life.

• Moments of quiet and connection — experiencing the landscape without the need to achieve anything or be anywhere else.

• Yoga Nidra and immersive sound bath — a deeply restful experience combining guided meditation with the rich vibrations of gongs, singing bowls and other instruments, inviting the body to relax and the mind to become still.

We will move between the warmth and comfort of our indoor spaces and carefully chosen experiences outdoors.

You won't be expected to spend the entire day outside in the December weather.

Nor will you need any previous experience of meditation, breathwork or sound baths.

There is no particular philosophy or spiritual belief you need to adopt.

Simply bring your curiosity and a willingness to experience something different.

This may be for you if...

You love being in nature but rarely give yourself the time to experience it fully.

You find yourself continually looking ahead to the next season, the next holiday or the next thing to accomplish.

Your life feels busy, noisy or relentlessly productive, and something within you is asking for a little more space.

You're curious about mindfulness, sound, breathwork or the relationship between our bodies and the natural world.

Or perhaps you simply feel drawn to spend a day somewhere beautiful, reconnecting with yourself and the world around you.

You don't need to arrive with any particular expectations.

Just come as you are.

Your life feels busy, noisy or relentlessly productive, and something within you is asking for a little more space.

You're curious about mindfulness, sound, breathwork or the relationship between our bodies and the natural world.

Or perhaps you simply feel drawn to spend a day somewhere beautiful, reconnecting with yourself and the world around you.

You don't need to arrive with any particular expectations.

Just come as you are.

An invitation to experience winter differently

Imagine leaving with no need for winter to be anything other than winter.

Not wishing the bare trees had leaves.

Not needing the days to be longer.

Not treating rain as an inconvenience or darkness as something to escape.

But beginning to notice what is already here.

The extraordinary structure of a tree revealed when its leaves have fallen.

The low winter light.

The sound of water.

The cold air entering your lungs.

The quietness of the landscape.

The permission nature gives us to slow down.

Because learning to accept the seasons isn't really about winter.

It's about learning to meet life as it is, rather than continually wishing it were something else.

The Turning Year — Beyond the Retreat

The Turning Year is more than a single day.

Alongside the retreat, I've been creating The Turning Year — Winter Journal, a book of seasonal reflections and gentle practices designed to help us reconnect with the natural rhythms of winter.

Everyone attending the Winter Retreat will receive their own copy of the journal, included as part of the experience.

Beginning at the winter solstice and continuing towards the spring equinox, the journal follows three stages of the changing season: Stillness, Stirrings and Awakening.

Within its pages, you'll discover reflections on our relationship with nature, the wisdom of slowing down, the traditional celebrations that once marked the turning of the year, the changing phases of the Moon, and space to explore your own thoughts and experiences.

It is an invitation to notice the small changes taking place in the landscape, to reflect on the rhythms of your own life and to discover that even in the apparent stillness of winter, something is always changing.

My hope is that the retreat will offer a day to pause and reconnect, while the journal will help you carry that experience into the weeks and months that follow.

And as the seasons turn, further journals will follow, each exploring the particular character and wisdom of the season ahead.

Because our connection with nature isn't something we discover once. It's a relationship we can continue to deepen throughout the turning year.

An invitation to reconnect

I'm creating a small, intimate winter experience at Sculpture by the Lakes for people who feel drawn to explore this more deeply.

I'll be sharing the full details soon.

For now, I'm opening a Priority List for those who would like to hear about it first.

There is no obligation to book.

It simply means that when I reveal what I've been creating, you'll be among the first to know.

If something in these words has resonated with you, perhaps that's enough.