Togethering, The Gathering is simple: gather together, play together, eat together, rest together, make the meaning we seek together.
Welcome to the next iteration of community gathering at Rootstock! On the first Saturday of every month from 10am-4pm, the hill will welcome the women, the men, the people, the kids, the families, the neighbors, the friends, and the curious passersby for a day of togethering. This new container will offer a rhythmic and regular time and place to come together in conscious community.
Here’s the jist…
On the first Saturday of each month, Rootstock opens at 10am! The morning invites time to lay out our potluck, shovel and fire the bathhouse, take a ski, mend some socks, climb some trees, make some art, or lay in hammocks or the Belly and just relax together. The only plan is to be together and to do the things that allow that togetherness to flourish. Note: Alone-together is also a way of togethering and if wandering off to the fringes of the gathering are how you want to be in community, that’s also welcome.
Potluck & Wood-fired Bathhouse from 12pm-2ishpm! We’ll enjoy a proper siesta with the labeled potluck dish we brought to share and rustic hydrotherapy that we prepared for ourselves. Time to soak, eat, rest, chat…whatever! Note: If nobody shows up in the morning to help fire the bathhouse and everybody arrives with pickles for the potluck, well, we’ll laugh and navigate. Folks will need to come at 10am to help if baths will be ready by 12pm and this will be the one day a month to prepare something special to share with your community….that’s the prayer.
The afternoon may consist of simply cleaning up the potluck and closing down the bathhouse or, with plenty of folks here to help, it should invite more conscious time to pass a talking stick, fall into a spontaneous music circle, sacred fire, meditation, game, or or or. Once relaxed and fed, there’s no limit to how this beautiful community might want to express itself to itself and, assuming we’ve cleaned up after ourselves, the sky is the limit on how we can enjoy the afternoon and evening. Note: with the exception of 4 seasonal Moon Circles following Togethering, the evening following this day (4pm and after) will remain open to allow for spontaneity.
We are all building worlds, doing our sacred work, and serving life and our communities in unique and potent ways. TOGETHERING is an opportunity for our community of communities to come together. It’s literally a watering hole where we can come once a month to bathe and nourish each other, say “hi! how have you been?'“ with time to actually hear the answer, connect with our friends children and partners, inspire and be inspired, and weave ourselves into the beautiful tapestry that is this place at this radical time.
Togethering simply asks us to show up.
To prioritize and practice showing up at the same time and same place for a while.
To learn how to relax around each other & express ourselves authentically.
To remember how to village, how to human, and how to connect.
In this time of great change, we can all benefit from a safe space to explore, reveal, and step into whatever the new world is calling on each of us to become. In this time of collapse and rebirth, proactively creating new culture and new ways of connecting is the task at hand. Let’s start with getting to know one another and learning how to be together. Let’s play and feed each other. Let’s nap and sing together. Let’s grieve and pray together. As women and men and people. As families and friends and kin. As neighbors and teachers and healers and guides and lovers of life, let’s get together.
To start, this is the ground we’ll stand on:
RSVP’ing online is best practice. Part of the culture we’ll co-create with Togethering will communicating when we’re coming and who we’re bringing. Sign up will be fast and simple and cancellations will have a clear channel to be communicated.
Donations & participation are essential to sustain this gathering. Beana is not intending to sponsor a monthly community bathhouse but is prepared to foster the creation of this space and help nurture it into existence. This means that folks - you - will need to help. Donations will keep us in propane, electricity, clean blankets for cold kiddos, and wood to burn and/or participation to open and close the bathhouse & clean up whatever mess we make will ensure that no one person is left holding the bag. A sliding scale of $10-60 will be invited at signup with options to support the gathering with help setting up/breaking down the baths or potluck instead of money.
We’ll make the meaning we seek! Culture creation takes time and consistency, and establishing efficient systems for gathering around food, the bathhouse, children, spirit, and new people inevitably requires consciousness, care and effort. Those friends and neighbors that understand the intrinsic value in a space like this being made available have the opportunity to co-create it and the potential is vast. Ideally a sturdy crew of beloveds (new & old friends) will say YES!, commit to one day a month of Togethering, anchor it in their calendars, and learn how the bathhouse works, how Rootstock works, and how to animate this temple in a way that leaves no trace all the while cultivating deep relationship with a new fractal family and conscious community.
The first Togethering will happen on Saturday, September 5th and we’ve anchored a full year of this beautiful day in the calendar. Feel welcome and invited to RSVP online for the dates you’d like to join, help, and/or hang.
The confirmation email will share the details on arrival/departure, how to cancel your participation if your plans change, what to bring, and considerations that will help you arrive resourced to enjoy and co-create a day of relaxed but conscious togetherness. Rootstock is a dog-free campus and it’s essential that you leave your sweet doggos home (not in the car) for this gathering.
For those women who are just realizing that the first Saturday of the month is when we gather for Moon Circle…
After almost a decade of steady service, Beana is dissolving the monthly Moon gathering in favor of a quarterly Moon Council - one per season - and a smaller, more free form women’s gathering on the Friday night before Togethering. The Moon Council will preserve the preciousness and potency of the circle we’ve been cultivating for years, ensuring sacred space to commune and connect while First Friday will make new space for actually building connections, coming into deeper relationship, and forging a more reciprocal community that’s not reliant on Beana’s leadership to maintain it’s shape.
((Quarterly)) Saturday Night Facilitated Circle
Limited to 25 women, the Moon Council will take up space 4x a year following our friendly gathering. Beana will facilitate and curate these precious circles.
((Monthly)) Friday Night Free Form Gathering
Limited to 10 women, First Friday will make space for community members wanting to deepen connection with Beana & Rootstock, co-create Togethering, and build relationships in a conscious and creative way.