We were created to thrive and grow through playing. Play--defined as "pleasurable and apparently purposeless activity,"* and as varied as reading, creating, joking, climbing, or exploring--is a way that Spirit opens up space in our lives for sacred connection, healing, and joy. Research shows that various forms of play create neurogenesis and enhance physical and social health as well.

During this retreat you will be invited to explore the liberating energy of play in your spiritual life through movement, art, and story sharing—all by invitation and with gentle support. How is Spirit inviting you further into divine connection and courage through play—whether quiet or loud, subtle or active?

*Stuart Brown, M.D., National Institute for Play

Presenter Bio: Laura Sasaki Norton, M.Div, offers play, contemplation, and movement as liberatory spiritual care practices. Her spiritual direction training through Liberated Together centers the wisdom of women of color, using indigenous and body-based practices which welcome each person's sacred inner knowing. An artist, writer, and teacher, Laura braids together Christian, Buddhist, and the Shinto practices of her Japanese ancestors to offer accompaniment—whether sitting peacefully, or easefully running or hiking as ways to connect with the Divine which moves within each of us. At Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York she studied Spiritual Care and Womanist theology, and she is currently Spiritual Care Associate at The Riverside Church NYC. The parent of two creative and soulful adults, Laura feels captivated by contemplative calligraphy, energetic scribbling, and squeezing into tiny openings within boulders and caves discovered on hikes in mountains and along coastlines!