We are inviting you and our favorite others to join in a weekend of exploring and celebrating surprise at the beautiful Mount Madonna Retreat Center near Santa Cruz, California.  

In our conversations about what this weekend might be, we all felt that the capacity to creatively engage with surprise is an important competence to cultivate in unpredictable times  

In recent conversation with Meg Wheatley she mentioned that she has been exploring “ways in which we move to depth and pop up for great moments of fun.”  

Peter Block has also invited us to think about mystery, and the inexplicability of what we encounter.  

We are all joined in the desire for finding ways to explore and celebrate, and to move through the “talking” into the “doing and being.” 

        ·         We want to be surprised by the genius of who shows up.  
·         We want to stimulate curiosity and surprise as a way of moving ourselves forward in our
      questioning and search for more meaningful and effective ways to engage the 
      communities in which we live. 
·         We want to play with the notion, “If the thinking that has brought into our present
      dilemmas will not get us out, then the thinking that will get us out necessarily will have
      to be a surprise."  
·         We want to enhance our capacities to respond creatively in this time of accelerating
      and unpredictable change. 
·         We want to  explore and harness our individual and collective capacity for to enter the
      mystery and meet the surprise it contains  

This December gathering at Mount Madonna has been inspired by the wonderful workshop on "Clarity, Courage and Connection," at point Reyes last December with Margaret Wheatley, Peter Block, Dinesh Chandra and Aimee Bernstein.  

This year the original cast will be joined and supported by Gary Merrill, Vivian Wright, and Sadanand Mailliard. We will also be joined by Sobonfu Some and One World Music. 

We will be able to accommodate up to 100 people in this lovely facility, located in the mountains above Monterey Bay.  We are extending invitation to all who came to the retreat last year and extending a warm invitation to new friends from our expanding circle from around the globe. 

Your presence will be a gift to the wonderful collective we are inviting to playfully explore the mystery and reveal how we can engage and harness surprise as an ally in challenging times.

Logistics 

The weekend starts with dinner at 5:30pm on Friday December 5^th and ends after lunch on Sunday December 7^th. Upon Registration you will be sent a packet with all necessary details and we will keep you updated by email and the Web as things develop.  
                               Housing will be done on a first come first serve basis.

Conference Fees