Kin Circle

Kin Circle – For Families, Kids & Kin

1st Sunday of each month @ Rootstock  | 1:00-3:30pm

It’s time!  To animate the temples at Rootstock with children, families, kin, and an innovative and ancient flavor of togetherness.  It’s time to gather in a new old way and finally make a commitment to support children, their parents, and for the whole community to practice how to be in bodies, on this Earth, and together.

This ~3 hour monthly gathering is not a generic “playdate.”  It’s not intended to let kids run wild while parents commiserate or check out.  This is an active endeavor.  A practice.  An offering.  A living prayer.  An experiment in re-villaging with intentional people in service to a shared vision.  Together we’ll practice being in a place well and making it better for having been there.

Simple and crucial, we’ll begin by saying hello to this place and to each other; circle by circle, month by month, we’ll all learn how to inhabit our little village. How to hold space for kids, moms, elders and kin with authenticity, empathy and nurturance.  Every month we’ll gather and practice being ourselves, being in service, and being together.  Come October, the kin who practiced together all year will be nourished and eager to participate and contribute to Rootstock’s annual 100 hour fire.

It’s time to make an innovative community container to decondition ourselves from toxic patterns of living and belonging, to re-indigenize, and feel what it feels like (if only for one Sunday a month) when we gather around all that is holy. To show-up in reverence and awe for the miraculous, sometimes messy humaning, to honor our place within the whole. To love all that we are; our holy wilderness and where it’s rooted. 

The container that is Rootstock is sturdy and the conscious community we’ve been cultivating together is ready to stretch in the direction of our future and help the kids enjoy the beautiful and inspiring work we do on the imagination farm.

• Every family unit attending understands that this is not an event that’s attempting to create some perfect space where kids don’t come undone, get cranky, or freak-out.  The whole point of this gathering is to center the families and learn how to be with what is.  In community.  With support.  In service of something bigger than all of us.
• Every kin attending (folks coming without kids of their own) is committing to co-create this safe and supportive space by being present with the children, the Mammas & Pappas, and the place.  You don’t necessarily need to love playing with kids to come and find meaning and joy in this gathering.  Tending the sanctuaries is sacred and fulfilling work and it’s necessary and welcome.  These folks will bring a grounded, attentive, relaxed and curious spirit to the day; embodying and modelling fun and healthy ways to be here.

So how will it work?

The vision for our first circle is a container we’ll animate together :

• All ~20-30 of us will gather at the Oasis in a big circle and we’ll say hello to each other.
• Then, either all together or as we feel called, we’ll walk the paths of Rootstock (and tromp in some snow!) and say hello to the Hill!  Place by place, temple by temple, we’ll walk the paths of Rootstock and meet the place:
  • We’ll say hi to the Bathhouse
  • We’ll say hi to the Cosmic Egg
  • We’ll say hi to the Cabin
  • We’ll say hi to the Chaga Cathedral
  • We’ll say hi to Grandmother Maple
  • We’ll say hi to the Greenhouse
  • We’ll say hi to the Fire
  • We’ll say hi to the Belly
  • We’ll say hi to the Dragon
  • We’ll say hi to our seen and unseen kin, we’ll make offerings to the Earth, the day and each other and we’ll explore
• Some Kin will be anchored in various temples holding space as we make our way through the hellos.  They’ll welcome us and invite us to participate with whatever it is they might be caring for.  There could be some maple trees being tapped, prayers getting made at the fire, some wood being gathered, some songs being sung in the Belly, or some snacking in the Cabin…
• Some folks might want to adventure through all the temples, make all the hellos, and try everything while others may just want to hunker by the fire, in the Belly, or find a quiet place to rest.

It will take time to cultivate trust in each other and this container.  It’ll be a “practice”, anchored in the calendar on the first Sunday of every month, ensuring cyclical opportunities to be with it all.  It will take patience and care to co-create an authentic, in-tact way of being together and it’s time to try.

Our monthly Moon & Sun & Stone circle gatherings have laid a foundation to allow the adults in service of this space to fill their own cups and to council, process, and integrate the challenges that the Kin Circle may bring up.   We have been cultivating a culture of care here since 2018 that is finally ready to serve more of our community, our children, our future.

Imagine that the children who participate in these gatherings deepen their connection to nature, their bodies, this community and all that is holy.  Imagine that they learn how to give themselves to life in such a way that they are centered in their knowing, capacity and sovereignty; their birthrights can be fully theirs without the need to decondition.  Imagine planting a seed right now that nourishes the next seven generations and keeps life alive.

Space will be limited to ensure the gathering is right sized, please RSVP and join the waitlist if space is full.

Any donations made will go towards ensuring there is something warm and nourishing in the hearth and safe, well-tended infrastructure to hold us.