Events
"A circle of trust is a group of people who know how to sit quietly...with each other and wait for the shy soul to show up....In such a space, we are freed to hear our own truth, touch what brings us joy, become self critical about our faults, and take risky steps toward change - knowing that we will be accepted no matter what the outcome." - Parker Palmer
Becoming Elder, Iowa City Senior Center, May 16, 2025
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Iowa City Senior Center, 28 S. Linn St., Iowa City, IA. Elderhood involves much more than the accumulation of lived years. Elderhood evolves when those lived years contribute to a special wisdom and vision that are shared with the community and society. In many ways, elderhood is the pinnacle of developing one’s wholeness as a person. Coming into this wholeness is a lifelong process, and it continues in elderhood. This monthly discussion series follows the Courage and Renewal® approach as we explore what it means to “become elder” and how we might bring our life wisdom and unique gifts to others. We base our discussions on short readings by various authors, though no preparation is needed. Come to one session, some sessions, or all of them! Free. Iowa City Senior Center members register here. (If you're not an Iowa City Senior Center member, please contact Thomas Dean at wildsoulthomas@outlook.com.)
Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time, Nahant Marsh Education Center, June 6, 2025
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. Nahant Marsh Education Center, 4220 Wapello Ave., Davenport, IA. This program includes a screening of the Emmy Award–winning documentary Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time, produced in partnership with the Aldo Leopold Foundation, the Center for Humans and Nature, and the US Forest Service, and supported by funding from Humanities Iowa. Green Fire is the first full-length documentary film ever made about legendary conservationist Aldo Leopold, author of A Sand County Almanac, who was born and raised in Burlington, Iowa. Green Fire traces the formation of Leopold's ideas through his life and experiences as well as how he shaped and influenced the modern environmental movement throughout his extraordinary career. The film and discussion renew Leopold's idea of a land ethic for a population facing 21st-century ecological challenges, inviting viewers and participants to contemplate their own relationship with the land community. Thomas Dean is trained as a Land Ethic Leader through the Aldo Leopold Foundation. This program is supported by the Humanities Iowa Speakers Bureau. Free admission and no registration required.
Becoming Elder, Iowa City Senior Center, June 20, 2025
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Iowa City Senior Center, 28 S. Linn St., Iowa City, IA. Elderhood involves much more than the accumulation of lived years. Elderhood evolves when those lived years contribute to a special wisdom and vision that are shared with the community and society. In many ways, elderhood is the pinnacle of developing one’s wholeness as a person. Coming into this wholeness is a lifelong process, and it continues in elderhood. This monthly discussion series follows the Courage and Renewal® approach as we explore what it means to “become elder” and how we might bring our life wisdom and unique gifts to others. We base our discussions on short readings by various authors, though no preparation is needed. Come to one session, some sessions, or all of them! Free. Iowa City Senior Center members register here. (If you're not an Iowa City Senior Center member, please contact Thomas Dean at wildsoulthomas@outlook.com.)
Circle of Trust®: Summer Abundance, Prairiewoods, July 12, 2025
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Prairiewoods Franciscan Ecospirituality Center, 120 E. Boyson Rd., Hiawatha, IA. During this day-long Circle of Trust® retreat, we will co-create trustworthy space to listen to the wisdom of our personal inner teacher in community with others through the Courage & Renewal® approach developed by Parker Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal. Through Circles of Trust, we renew our courageous spirit as we align our inner and outer selves—our “soul” and “role”—and journey toward personal and societal wholeness. This is part of a series of quarterly Circle of Trust gatherings, each having a seasonal theme and inviting a variety of full-group, small-group, and individual experiences, including time to enjoy the beautiful natural grounds of Prairiewoods. We will connect with our inner teachers and build community through poems, stories, songs, artworks, and activities drawn from diverse cultures and wisdom traditions, offering opportunities for individual reflection, trustworthy sharing, and deep listening. Anyone is welcome to attend one, some, or all of these one-day retreats. $50 registration (includes lunch). Register here.
Becoming the Elder Tree: Purpose in the Second Half of Life (full Circle of Trust® retreat)
Prairiewoods, August 15-17, 2025
Friday 6:30 p.m. to Sunday 1:00 p.m. Prairiewoods Franciscan Ecospirituality Center, 120 E. Boyson Rd., Hiawatha, IA. Co-facilitated by Thomas Dean and fellow Courage & Renewal® facilitator Chris Johnson. This full-weekend Circle of Trust® retreat invites you to envision a second half of life that calls forth your truest self and unique purpose, and to explore what it means to be an “elder” in the deepest sense: when our lived years contribute to a special wisdom, vision, and wholeness that are shared for the benefit of the community and society. Coming into this wholeness and living an undivided life is a lifelong process, and it continues into elderhood.
In addition to experiencing, reflecting on, and discussing cultural expressions (such as poems, stories, music, and art) that invite us to consider what it means to be an elder and how we might cultivate purpose in the second half of life, we will explore the development of elderhood through our interdependent relationships with the more-than-human world, from nature outside our window all the way up to the greater universe story. Inspired by ecologist Suzanne Simard’s revelations about how forests are communities that are cooperative, collaborative, communicative, and reciprocal, we will consider how we can be the elder trees that nurture, support, and pass wisdom to others for the health and well-being of the entire community. In doing so, we will explore how engaging in “conversations” with nature can lead to an enriched second half of life, and we will invite participants to encounter the beautiful prairie and woods of our gathering place for contemplation, relationship, and inspiration. Prairiewoods’ revered 300-year-old Grandmother Oak will be our touchstone for the weekend.
This retreat welcomes participants of all ages and at any stage of life. Register here.
Trusting Wildness: Living Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic (full Circle of Trust® retreat)
Aldo Leopold Birthplace and Childhood Homes, Burlington, Iowa
September 12-14, 2025
Aldo Leopold Birthplace and Childhood Homes, 101 and 111 Clay St., Burlington, IA. Co-facilitated by Thomas Dean and Steve Brower. Thomas Dean is a trained Courage & Renewal® facilitator by the Center for Courage and Renewal, as well as a trained Land Ethic Leader by the Aldo Leopold Foundation. Steve Brower, a landscape architect and Leopold scholar, is president of the Leopold Landscape Alliance, which owns the Leopold homes.
This Circle of Trust® retreat, using the Courage & Renewal® approach developed by Parker Palmer and the Center for Courage and Renewal that he co-founded, will focus on how Aldo Leopold’s land ethic can and does inform our own lives and our individual identities, and how we can develop a more ethical and trustworthy interdependence with the wild. The retreat will take place at the birthplace and childhood homes of Aldo Leopold in Burlington, Iowa. The homes and grounds, nestled on five acres on a beautiful bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, were the settings of AIdo's earliest discoveries in nature and profoundly influenced his views on conservation and ecology, the development of his land ethic, and his understanding of how the natural world inspires the human spirit. We will be inspired by gathering in Leopold’s home space as well as through a visit to a natural area where Aldo and family tramped in the woods and ravines of their Burlington community. Throughout our time together, we will also learn about Aldo’s childhood, the deeply humanistic education he received from his family growing up, and the origins of the land ethic in this foundational landscape.
Aldo Leopold, one of the most important conservationists, ecologists, and nature writers of the 20th century, stated his “land ethic” in his seminal book A Sand County Almanac this way: “All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. . . . The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land. . . . [A] land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. . . . A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” But, as Leopold said, “Nothing so important as an ethic is ever ‘written.’ . . . It [evolves] in the minds of a thinking community. . . . The evolution of a land ethic is an intellectual as well as emotional process.”
This retreat will form a weekend-long thinking community that will work together to discern ways we can continue to evolve the land ethic, both as a society and as individuals. In true Courage & Renewal fashion, we will explore how we can align our soul and role—our authentic self and our actions in society—from the perspective of the land ethic and by trusting wildness as well as each other.
For more details, visit couragerenewal.org/programs/trusting-wildness-living-aldo-leopolds-land-ethic/.
To register or for questions or inquiries, contact Thomas Dean at wildsoulthomas@outlook.com.
Circle of Trust®: Autumn Harvest, Prairiewoods, October 4, 2025
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Prairiewoods Franciscan Ecospirituality Center, 120 E. Boyson Rd., Hiawatha, IA. During this day-long Circle of Trust® retreat, we will co-create trustworthy space to listen to the wisdom of our personal inner teacher in community with others through the Courage & Renewal® approach developed by Parker Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal. Through Circles of Trust, we renew our courageous spirit as we align our inner and outer selves—our “soul” and “role”—and journey toward personal and societal wholeness. This is part of a series of quarterly Circle of Trust gatherings, each having a seasonal theme and inviting a variety of full-group, small-group, and individual experiences, including time to enjoy the beautiful natural grounds of Prairiewoods. We will connect with our inner teachers and build community through poems, stories, songs, artworks, and activities drawn from diverse cultures and wisdom traditions, offering opportunities for individual reflection, trustworthy sharing, and deep listening. Anyone is welcome to attend one, some, or all of these one-day retreats. $50 registration (includes lunch). Register here.
Circle of Trust®: Winter Rest, Prairiewoods, January 10, 2026
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Prairiewoods Franciscan Ecospirituality Center, 120 E. Boyson Rd., Hiawatha, IA. During this day-long Circle of Trust® retreat, we will co-create trustworthy space to listen to the wisdom of our personal inner teacher in community with others through the Courage & Renewal® approach developed by Parker Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal. Through Circles of Trust, we renew our courageous spirit as we align our inner and outer selves—our “soul” and “role”—and journey toward personal and societal wholeness. This is part of a series of quarterly Circle of Trust gatherings, each having a seasonal theme and inviting a variety of full-group, small-group, and individual experiences, including time to enjoy the beautiful natural grounds of Prairiewoods. We will connect with our inner teachers and build community through poems, stories, songs, artworks, and activities drawn from diverse cultures and wisdom traditions, offering opportunities for individual reflection, trustworthy sharing, and deep listening. Anyone is welcome to attend one, some, or all of these one-day retreats. $50 registration (includes lunch). Register here.