Details:
Date: Friday 19th – Monday 22nd June
Retreat Leader: Paul Wielgus
Requirements: This gathering is for the curious, the weary, the wild-hearted. No previous experience is needed—just a willingness to be surprised by your own aliveness. Whether you come alone or with friends, you’ll be met with warmth, spaciousness, and good compost for your soul.
Cost: Generosity Model – Donation only (by clicking the ‘Donate Here’ button below). Land of Joy provides: All meals, accommodation, workshops, materials and good firewood for soulful nights.
Format: Onsite only / Retreat begins: 7pm on the 19th June / Retreat ends: after lunch on 22nd June
Recommended arrival: 3pm – 5pm to join for supper and get settled into the space
Accommodation: Land of Joy wishes for everyone who visits the centre to feel welcome, accepted, safe and secure. Our accommodation options are very limited, with mostly single-sex shared accommodation and a very limited number of single rooms. Single accommodation can therefore only be offered on a priority basis. Please read the relevant sections of the booking form carefully.
About the Retreat
Join us for a beautiful, relaxing, and deeply meaningful gathering in the heart of nature—held over the luminous days of the Summer Solstice at the serene sanctuary of Land of Joy. This is not just a retreat. It’s a remembering. A re-rooting. A celebration.
What’s Alive in This Workshop?
Over a long summer solstice weekend, we’ll immerse ourselves in the wild stillness and soft rhythms of the land. Together, we will:
- Rest in the quiet magic of reflection spaces, birdsong, and breeze.
- Share in the collective joy of meditation, breath, and gentle movement under open skies.
- Savour wholesome, nourishing food, prepared with care and shared in gratitude.
- Gather around the fire in the long golden evenings to celebrate joy, stories, and seasonal aliveness.
- Practice being human together—with tenderness, play, and deep listening.
This is a space to unplug from urgency and reclaim connection—with yourself, with others, and with the living world.
Why “Fall in Love with the Future”?
Because in a world swirling with uncertainty, we need new myths. New narratives. New ways of being-with the unknown.
Together, we’ll explore how joy, hope, and creative response are not naive… but radical acts of rootedness.
We’ll tend the soil of possibility, and open to a simple but profound truth: Our joy arises from our natural state of inter-being.
Over these Solstice days, we will:
- Learn to love ourselves—as part of nature, not apart from it.
- Learn to love each other—with kindness, courage, and honesty.
- Learn to love the Earth—not as an idea, but as kin.
- And yes… learn to fall in love with the future—not through control, but through connection.
Who Is This For?
This gathering is for the curious, the weary, the wild-hearted. No previous experience is needed—just a willingness to be surprised by your own aliveness. Whether you come alone or with friends, you’ll be met with warmth, spaciousness, and good compost for your soul.
Come Join Us
Let this be a pause from performance. A ritual of remembering. A small, sacred step toward a world where we fall in love—not with perfection, but with what is still possible.
✨ Let the land love you back. ✨ Let the future become your ally. ✨ Let yourself come alive.
Spots are limited. To reserve your place use the ‘Book My Place’ button above.
What will be offered:
- All meals & accommodation
- All workshops including meditation, breath work and gentle movement sessions
- The chance to reconnect with the land in the beautiful Northumberland National Park
- An opportunity to soak up the stars in a dark skies area
- All equipment and materials required including fire wood for soulful nights
About the Retreat Leader
Paul Wielgus
Paul spent a large part of his working life facilitating groups of all sizes, as well as one to one coaching, up until 1999 when he left a large organisation to set up his 2 businesses, Dragonfly Coaching For Life and Social Innovation (2020 Vision)
In 2019 he decided to stop all his commercial life to dedicate his time to activism with Extinction Rebellion and XR Buddhists
His core belief (and experience) is that in activism and in life, the most important thing is to learn not how to fix things, but instead to try to learn how to find creative and courageous, kind and wise responses to the many challenges we face. Finding Joy is a key aspect of this work.
He live in Somerset with his lovely partner Ros, where a significant part of their lives is dedicated to serving their unpredictable cat, Olly.