08/24/2024
I'm sitting in my parents' living room as I write this. It’s mid-August, 2024, and across the street and down a cliff, the Pacific waves patiently shape rocks over eons, as the rocks shape the waves in the moment, for a moment. Sea shanties are playing through my headphones—"Heave away! Haul away!" I could write CHAPTERS on the ideas that emerge from these voices from another time: Loss, Hierarchy, Identity, Hope, Isolation, Brotherhood... so very much more. They echo with timeless struggles and resilience. And even in their most sanitized forms, they reveal deeper shadows—bigotry, forced servitude, violence, exploitation, alcoholism. These aren’t just relics; they’re challenges we face today.
I am so grateful that I was born in the midst of a soft revolution, where consciousness around these issues is creating real choice, real change. Here amidst the treacherous wreckage, there is treasure. Wisdom. Love. Self-acceptance. Let's not turn away from this. This is the hard, rich path to personal liberation.
Let me tell you a little about Wildish Retreats for masc and menfolk. Over the weekend, we cast a spell, invoking acceptance, support, safety, and earned trust. In that bubble, true transformation has a chance to unfold. Men who have never opened up to other men... open up. And are SEEN! APPRECIATED! Trans folks and CIS Trump supporters drop their shields and begin to truly see and ally with each other, discovering at the core that we all seek safety, love, and positive expansion. Engineers become emotive. Non-artists birth powerful poems. This isn’t hyperbole; it’s reporting. I’m deeply humbled every time. We, the "leaders," grow along with everyone else on this path with us.
What happens here is important. We’re accelerating the soft revolution. We are becoming open-hearted, expressive men+. We are grieving the damage we have done, that has been done to us, and in doing so, give ourselves and each other a chance at true transformation, redefining masculinity for ourselves. Maybe it's as succinct as Hamed put it after our second retreat:
You will see grown-ass men who admit their problems,
confess, and are willing to share and give you the gift of support.
Don’t worry about your strong, masculine, perfect mask to fall off;
you will love the unbelievable feeling. J
ust keep your mind open.
– Hamed.
Fuchs yes, Hamed. I couldn’t have said it better myself. ;)
This is not just for masculine folks. This is for all of us.
Tell your family. Tell your friends. There is a path towards joy, mutual support, liberation. It lives in you. Believe it until you don’t have to believe it, because you are on it. Get help to find your path. Help others. This is important. This is worth doing.
So, here’s the pitch: Wildish Work will soon be offering retreats for all folks. This stuff works. It's one way to find your path, reinforce your direction, build out your community, and it's a great way! We will continue to offer masc/men's events because we have a LOT of transformation magic shenanigans that we can get up to in that format. Dream into positive transformation. Consider how you want to make it happen. We would be ecstatic to have you at our events, and if you know us, you know that’s a sincere sentiment. We also just want you to thrive. How can we help? How can I help? And of COURSE, how can I get you up the mountain, to one of our events?
Rawly yours,
~leaf 💚
