Desert Monastery & Retreat Center
The Desert Monastery & Retreat Center is the fulfillment of several visions. Donna has always had a notion that she was supposed to build a community for spiritual pursuits, and was directed by her guru to do exactly that. Kevin is called to build a 'Temple,' a place of gathering of like-minded folks on diverse, but ultimately similar spiritual journeys. Together, Donna and Kevin have created a blend of their visions and inspirations.
The center provides an opportunity for individuals, couples and small groups to come and have an affordble and renewing experience of ‘vacation’ - one less fraught with tensions and traffic, more characterized by hours of time for quiet walks and for meditation, with no disruptions from phone calls and schedules. For many, it will seem a return to a pace reminiscent of the less technical days of their grandparents’ childhoods. For some, it will seem unsettling to have so few manufactured sounds, as they must now begin to hear the sounds of their bodies and thoughts, and become receptive to inspirations and natural sounds. For all, it will provide a needed respite from the constant noise and frenetic pace of daily life, and will allow the body to relax more deeply than perhaps it has been able to in years. From this experience comes a return to awareness of nature, and possibly a reminder of what is important in their lives. A renewed or brand new sense of purpose and intention will often result, as well as increased sense of well-being felt as improved health and greater stress-hardiness.
Additionally, this Desert Monastery project offers a setting and a context for those who may feel a deeper calling, to leave their normal life for a time and to go into retreat of a more profound nature. In a sense, this project offers the fledgling or experienced meditator a short-term ‘hermit’ or monk-like experience, an opportunity to ground themselves more fully in contemplation and to have access to the divine messages accessed only from within, in periods of silence.
There are also opportunities for service - a chance to offer a personal gift of labor to the Monastery & Retreat Center by working in the garden, stringing fence lines, pruning tree branches, or other outdoor activity to beautify and improve the surroundings as evidence of or gratitude for their stay. We anticipate cycles among guests and planned activities, knowing some in brief residence will require more chatter to relieve their adjustment stress, versus those in longer-length retreats characterized by more periods of silence.
Our intent for this land is two-fold - one: to return portions of it to a pre-grazed condition, by nourishing and replenishing the soil and reducing erosion damage and reducing the drought-tolerant weed-life that now substitutes for the area’s former rich grasslands, towards a large-scale reclamation project, and two: to create and operate a rustic retreat and meditation center, to dramatically reduce guests’ stress and anxieties and therefore improve their health by providing an affordable array of training and experiential activities, as well as silence and inactivity for contemplation. We are inspired by a vision of developing a spiritual community, peopled by long-term friends and temporary guests who commit to varying periods of service to the land projects and their spiritual growth.
The Retreat Center is set on 80 acres of formerly undeveloped land along the Little Colorado River, on Highway 180 between Holbrook (off Interstate-40) and the Apache County seat of St Johns, Arizona. We began the move to the first 40-acre parcel in September, 2002, and provided the preliminary infrastructure. In January 2004, we purchased the adjoining parcel for the current 80-acre size, with an approximately 2-mile perimeter, which now features the high rocky river bank of the Little Colorado River, crosses rolling hillsides, and runs downhill onto a level flood plain which is rich with silt from generations of occasional river flooding and rainfall run-off. We have a remarkable view across the plains towards remote mesas and grand Mount Escudilla (‘the shadow’), Sleeping Buffalo to the Navajo, in New Mexico to the East and South, with the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest to the North between us and the towns of Holbrook and Gallup. We are part of the White Mountains along the Mogollon Rim miles to the West. There is a great silence here, punctuated at times by evening coyote howls and early morning birdsong.
Donna, the Resident
Director, has been a professional mental health counselor
and substance abuse therapist since completing her Masters in 1984. In the 20
years since, nothing has been more urgent or important than to find and
live in her vision of a community of caring persons including an array of
healers and contemplatives. This 1983 Easter morning vision has been the
foundation beneath all her work , studies and activities over the years since
that day. “I feel that this Retreat Center is the culmination of all my callings
and deep yearnings. This will be the place where I get to do, have and be
everything my experiences have taught me in this life.”
Kevin, the Property
Manager, was the one who was led to this site in 2001 when still a resident of Austin, Texas. There he was active with a Thelema-based
lodge and became a priest with the Ecclesiastic Gnostic Catholic tradition, and here he found his dream - to develop a ceremonial site
for gatherings of spiritual alchemists, for healing and initiation. When he and Donna met in 2001, it didn’t take them long to discover their similar missions,
and to form a partnership to accomplish it together.
