When I decided to make Restorative Retreats a reality this winter, I did not anticipate launching an events business during a global pandemic. However, this unique moment in our lifetimes illustrates just how crucial it is to understand the art of retreating so that withdrawing from the world empowers and nourishes rather than diminishes us.

At this moment in mid-March 2020, people around the world are entering their first days or multiple months of necessary isolation. When we think about making the world a better place for others, rarely do we think about removing ourselves from people’s company or staying away from community. With Covid-19, however, we can best take care of ourselves and each other by stepping back and reducing contact.

What this difficult situation has offered us, in other words, is an opportunity to radically redefine what it means to be in community and to be in retreat. To learn how to come together from across distances and make it feel as intimate and supportive as when we can share a room, a lodge, a campus. To discover how to carve out spaces designated and designed for restorative work within homes that are now workplaces, daycares, schools—and often all of the above. To practice true relaxation in a tumultuous time where every refresh of the news browser introduces a new guideline, increases a case count, and intensifies our concern for ourselves and others around the world.

It would be easy for me to toss up my hands and think that this pandemic is a sign that I shouldn’t be launching Restorative Retreats right now. In one sense, this is true: I cannot in good conscience help anyone create a retreat, plan a wedding, or use our rental kits when gathering, even in small groups, can result in illness and death.

This truth isn’t the moral of the story, however. Rather, I believe that this is exactly the time to launch Restorative Retreats on a virtual level, drawing upon my experience using online learning and organizing platforms to ensure that the restorative work we usually do in person is accessible to us now at this most challenging of times.

Now, more than ever, nonprofits will need to develop resilience as fundraisers are canceled, donations drop and foundations lose millions in the stock market during this upcoming recession. They will have to adapt.

Now, more than ever, couples who have had to cancel weddings will need the opportunity to honor their loss in affordable yet memorable ceremonies that can commemorate the event that was while making plans for the event that will be. They will have to adapt.

Now, more than ever, social justice organizers will need to come together to mourn the hurt in the world while gathering strength to keep working to heal it. They will have to adapt.

Now is the perfect time to be launching Restorative Retreats, and I cannot wait to rest, renew, and restore with you all just when we need it most. And hopefully we can use this time of social distancing to get really clear about what is important to us in life. May we have the courage and humility to adapt to what is needed in this time!

Blessings,
Holly