Retreat Magic and Chapter 2025

The Tea Sisters reflect on their personal growth throughout 2024 while choosing empowering words to guide them into 2025. They discuss their experiences at the recent retreat, the deepening bonds between members, and the importance of community support.

• Reflection on personal growth in 2024 
• Discussion about the recent retreat and its impact 
• Importance of setting intentions for the coming year 
• Sharing of individual words for 2025 
• Emphasis on community support and connection 
• Inviting listeners to engage with their own growth journeys

Chapters

• 0:00 Life Updates and Reflections for 2025
• 15:25 Reflecting on Retreat Experiences for 2025
• 25:48 Memorable Retreat Experiences
• 33:54 2024 Goddess Reflections Workshop
• 50:20 Spill the Tea 2025 Retreat

Transcript

Kerri: 0:00

Hi everyone. I know it's been some time since we've put an episode out. Behind the scenes we've been gathering and chatting about the things we've created together. Lives are busy and we continue to try and forage a path together to continue to come together as a group and move some of the things we've created and are proud of forward. We felt it was important to put this episode out, give you some updates and reflections on where we are and where we're headed. So we invite you to listen in as we spill the tea about everything that's happening, as we continue growing with tea. Welcome back to Spill the Tea. We know it's been a while since we've got to chat with all of you, or you've got to listen to all of us chatting. I'm not sure how that works, but we thought we would start by letting you know who was here with us today and go from there. So I'm going to throw it over to you, tracy.

Tracy: 0:48

Oh, okay, all right, my name is Tracy. I am a longtime member of T. I think we decided that's like 20 plus years. Now we're done counting because it's over 20. So it's just 20 plus forever. We started T in a little trailer that I used to live in on a dead-end road 20 plus years ago and since then we have done tons of things. I wrote a book that you'll hear us talk about once in a while and I hope, if you're new to our podcast, you'll go pick up a copy. Uh, we do a retreat that, if you hang out, you're going to hear more about. In my daytime job, I'm a leader in the nonprofit world in Western New York. Yeah, so are we just passing the baton?

Kerri: 1:29

Yeah, but please pass it to Mary and Jen. I want to go before the girls because I used to be the youngest member, but now it'll be these two.

Tracy: 1:37

You didn't used to be the oh, the youngest member. I was going to be like Carrie I'm younger than you, stop.

Kerri: 1:42

Sorry, I get to be young once.

Tracy: 1:47

Hold on to one of those two. Excuse us while we fight about age.

Mary: 1:54

Oh, okay, so I'm Mary and I am a longtime member of T20 plus and I did not write any books, but I read Tracy's book. I in my day job, I am a public servant, and we'll just leave it at that, and so I will pass it to the next longest member, jen, to introduce herself.

Jennifer: 2:21

Hello, hello. Do we get keychains 20 plus or something? I want a crock to make sauerkraut in.

Jennifer: 2:33

Yeah, oh nice. So I'm Jennifer and I'm going to say it because I did it at the retreat. My pronouns are they, them. You can be a femme and be a them. I'm a therapist in mental health and substance use specifically, but that's my focus. I also consider myself a public servant of some degree. Mary, I love that phrase. I always tell the people that I'm there to work for them and that I honor that every day, although I haven't been there since Friday, but that's another story, so I am going to pass it to Carrie hi everyone.

Kerri: 3:11

So I'm Carrie. Career-wise, I work at a local community college overseeing a grant, which is a new job for me and that's exciting and challenging and all the things you might hope a job might be in a good way. I also have been a member of this group, but I joined. I think I was probably the last person that is in our group to join with everyone. Some of the things that I hear my tea sisters talk about are fun for me to hear, because I wasn't actually there and before we got on, we were sharing some stories about two other folks that have been with us Even before I joined the group.

Kerri: 3:52

They were probably members of the group but much younger. They are Tracy and Laura's children, aaron and Brooke. We have brought them formally into our circle, so you're going to be hearing more from them. They've attended both of our retreats and have been helping us along the way in small and big ways as they have grown up. So I am going to throw it over to you know what? I don't know which one of you is older, but I'm going to throw it over to Brooke and go from there. You can clarify all that.

Brooke: 4:24

I guess I am older, but hi everyone, my name is Brooke, I am the daughter of Laura and I'll throw out some life information. I currently am furthering my path in holistic wellness and I have some new job opportunities opening up for me, so we'll see how that goes. And I am a single mom who loves every minute of it and I'm super excited about joining T. This is my first official year in it. I'll throw it over to Erin Hi.

Eryn: 4:55

I'm Erin. I am the youngest in the group. I am the daughter of Tracy. Like Carrie was saying, brooke and I have definitely been members since before. We could remember, just as children, we would be present at some of the events or help set up. So I feel very lucky to be an official member as of this year. Some fun facts about me I work in healthcare. Some fun facts about me I work in healthcare. I recently got married.

Kerri: 5:31

I have two rescue dogs and my pronouns are she, her, Just to bring our listeners up to date. I think we all thought we would just share some life updates, like some reflections on 2024. Like, what were the good things highlights? Maybe crappy things, if you want to share, I don't know and then we were going to also share a word that we were taking into 2025 with us.

Tracy: 5:54

So 2024 was a year transition for me. So if you're a listener, you know that early last year I went through a divorce. I had a new grandchild, so I have two grandchildren now I have a new grandchild, so I have two grandchildren. Now I've started dating again and that has a whole host of fun stories that maybe we'll talk about at some point on the podcast. My word Okay. So Mary right off the bat had a word, and so I was like I don't know if I have a word.

Tracy: 6:18

I usually do an exercise every January that involves the five elements of wellness and I create something on Canva that is goal oriented, not really as a resolution thing, but so I can have a visual of kind of what I'm reaching for, and some of the stuff transpires from years past and that's still on there. Finding financial freedom didn't happen for me in 2024. So it's got to be paid forward. You know, some of those things just didn't come to fruition in the year that I had, so it'll get moved forward so I can still see it. I like having a visual reminder of what I'm working on. So I haven't really chosen a word in the past, but as I was reflecting with a friend of mine. She did an animal reading for me, and from the animal reading, Wait a second.

Kerri: 7:05

An animal reading. Yeah, what is an animal reading for me? And from the animal reading.

Tracy: 7:09

Wait a second. An animal reading. Yeah, she pulled cards that had animals on them. I am not calling it the right thing. Was it just a tarot card reading?

Kerri: 7:17

Or was it a spirit?

Eryn: 7:18

animal.

Tracy: 7:19

No, I don't think it was spirit animals, but it was animals. It was animals on the cards.

Mary: 7:28

Okay.

Kerri: 7:29

Keep going.

Tracy: 7:30

I'm sorry she's doing it for her friends in 2025. So the first card was supposed to represent the past, the second card was supposed to represent now and the third card was going to be what was coming into 2025 for you. Surrounding this, the weird thing is is the first card fell out for her, which isn't weird. I mean, that happens, I guess, if you're shuffling cards. The second card, I told her when, and the third card, I told her when, and then, as she was putting them down, a card flew out. So she grabbed that card and was like, well, I guess I'm supposed to talk to you about this card.

Tracy: 8:02

The first card was a tiger, and whenever we play that name game, I always do Tiger Tracy's and the whole card that she was telling me about was about yourself. And then the second card was a crow, which is weird because the guy I've been dating has crows all over his house. So that was kind of this cool, weird thing, like okay, I definitely was thinking about that. And then the third card was this little golden egg, which was a cool thing Anyhow, the whole reading. After interpreting it, she told me about this owl that popped out, and when she was talking to me. My computer froze on the owl and it just completely shut down. And my computer was frozen on the owl and so was hers, and the whole thing was you're supposed to be spending time this year in meditation reflecting on yourself.

Mary: 8:46

Wow, that's a fantastic story. My word is self. We call that short story long.

Tracy: 9:02

Short story long. I'm so sorry story long.

Mary: 9:11

I'm so sorry. I actually liked it because I didn't know what an animal reading was and that gave me some insight because when I googled it it just showed me pictures of cute animals reading a book animal reading you guys all know my friend she listens to the podcast.

Tracy: 9:26

She's gonna be like what the hell is wrong with you, tracy.

Jennifer: 9:28

This is not an animal reading I think it's medicine cards, aren't they medicine cards, like the animals have medicine and they have traits that come with them and those things are supposed to it. It is like a tarot reading, but animals are messengers or harbingers, like yeah.

Kerri: 9:48

I was thinking that you got an animal reading like a sketch, like a sketch of an animal, I don't know.

Mary: 9:55

Like your spirit animal.

Kerri: 9:56

Yeah.

Mary: 9:57

Like. I see this as your spirit animal and we're going to draw you a picture of it. That was a long way to get to. My word is self mary, go ahead and talk about your work. Should I make long story short, just to be you know the mirror of that, I would feel better.

Mary: 10:16

Okay, in 2024 I turned 50, which was not a big fanfare or anything like that. I just spent it having a meal with my mother and my husband, and so it was nice. It was low key, just jumping right into my word. I chose the word play because I wanted not only to just introduce more play activities into my year, but I also wanted to think about bringing play into the mundane things that I have to do, where it could be like making my bed. And how do I bring play into the monotony of making a bed every day? And so you know how, with kids, to get them motivated, you set a time limit on it. Of course, I can't race against anybody, so but I can race against the clock, and so how quickly can I make the bed, which is really important in the morning, because I am on a limited time schedule.

Tracy: 11:16

So how quickly are you making the bed?

Mary: 11:18

Well, it is one, I think. One minute, one minute making the bed. So now I have new hardwood floors and so you can slide around really fast. Carpet like slows your risky business moment, or what. Yes, and I'm sometimes in my underwear. So this year is the year of play and reintroducing it back, because we lose it once we start to probably teenage, but definitely when we start to adult I love that you went right before me.

Jennifer: 11:56

You'll hear why in a second. Okay, so 2024? Uh, I don't even honestly I have no idea. I feel like I mean there was a lot of recommitment to being creative, so that was kind of a cool, cool thing in my life. I mean I'm thinking, you know, just kind of basically settling into my life up here and bouncing back and forth between the Southern tier and here with my kiddo and stuff like that, just kind of the routine of things. So there's a lot of routine, but within there there was a lot of time for, like creativity and things like that. Things sort of at the end of the year for me got pretty stressful and have been for a couple of months now, health wise, but also some other things, but anyway.

Jennifer: 12:51

So the word that I chose, mary, was joy, because I also feel like you know that's a thing that I need to bring into, very similar to you all of these same things Like how can I make these things more joyful? How can I do these things and put a smile on my face? What can I infuse into it to get more energy out of it? That kind of a thing. So that's really fun that you went first and it was. They were similar in a way. So that is where I'm at going into 2025. Yes, I know, I was thinking we're going to do something. Obviously, we're going to have to do something together.

Eryn: 13:30

Yes, joy and play will show up Joy and play could have joy and play this Saturday when we meet up at our potential retreat location, oh, spoiler alert.

Kerri: 13:47

Excellent, all right. So 2024. What can I say about 2024? Like you, jen, I started 24 kind of in a really great creative place, really enjoy kind of getting back into being creative.

Kerri: 14:03

I was doing some painting and some other things. Just was kind of fun to kind of re-explore that part of myself that I kind of had forgotten about for a long time. But it comes and goes. I have spurts where I'm like all the way in and I'll spend a couple months painting and then I don't know, something happens and I stop and then I get reinvigorated and want to do it again. It's kind of a cyclical thing for me. I don't know why, but kind of how it works for me. And of course I mentioned I switched careers in 2024. So I had worked at the same place for almost 20 years and just was ready for something different and couldn't be happier with the choice I made and really like the work that I'm doing now. Not that I didn't like the work I was doing before, but I'm feeling more challenged and more I don't know just appreciate that, the work that I'm doing. So I did get to see some family this year, which was also exciting. So I know we're going to talk about the retreat later, but I had cousins attend the retreat and it was really wonderful and magical for me to have them come. But it was also really great to have all of my friends get to meet them too, my two cousins that came. I have said to them and I've shared with both of you that I feel like both of I'm, like a mix of both of them, like I have some of the greatest parts of both of them in me, that it was just really nice to share time with them and with you all as well. So that was really special in 2024.

Kerri: 15:25

2025,. I usually do not pick a word and I've probably mulled over five or six words up until this moment, trying to like decide which one. I might say I'm really between two words, but I think the word that I'm going to choose is alignment. I think I've spent a lot of time two and 24 that I'd like to carry into 2025. I guess listening that was my other word. That's why I couldn't choose kind of just listening to myself and what my deep seated soul is telling me, like and moving with the things that feel good and feel right in the moment, really listening to that inner voice and making sure that the things I'm doing really align with who I am and who I want to be and who I want people to think I am.

Jennifer: 16:08

I guess alignment is my word and that would be why Listen was my second choice. I kid you not.

Kerri: 16:15

Awesome.

Tracy: 16:18

Look how aligned we are.

Brooke: 16:21

Well, 2024 for me was definitely a year of reflections. I'll say that was my 2024 word. I used 2024 to process a lot that happened in my life. So, in a sense, I was doing a lot of shadow work. I am single, though I am partially ready to mingle with this shadow work that I've been doing, with this shadow work that I've been doing, but, yeah, I spent a lot of my year meditating and reflecting on life and myself and areas that I can better myself. So, with that being said, my 2025 word is going to be transformation. I'm really using 2025 to be a transformative year. I really want to get back in touch with nature and holistic wellness, and I would imagine my life so far has kind of been like a caterpillar. I've just been eating so far and I've kind of been cocooning, and now I am metamorphosizing and I am breaking free and becoming this beautiful butterfly.

Tracy: 17:25

Oh, you're in the right place, woman.

Eryn: 17:29

For me, I would say I didn't have time to have a word in 2024, other than maybe survive between finishing graduate school, taking my boards, planning a wedding, coordinating my own wedding, and then starting my career Going into 2025,. I also am between a lot of words because there's a lot of stuff that I would like to do. But, listening to Jen, I really liked the way that she said, you know, create. She included create in her 2024 review and going into 2025. So I am a musician at heart. I would like to get back into my music and at the retreat I was given a little taste of that singing with my sisters and helping women find their voice as sisters, and helping women find their voice. I also like the idea of create because it also pushes me out of my comfort zone. So paint and pass was definitely out of my comfort zone and I enjoyed it so much and I'm so ready to take that into my life and into my 2025.

Tracy: 18:44

Yay, oh, it does my heart good to hear that you're going and into my 2025. Yay, oh, it does my heart good to hear that you're going to get back to your music. I had just mentioned that to somebody else. Oh, you too, Jen, Good good.

Jennifer: 18:52

No, I mean, it makes my heart happy that Erin is oh okay. Yeah, yeah.

Mary: 18:58

Me too. I think we should end the podcast when it's time to end the podcast, with the harmonized ending that you used yes when it's time to end the podcast with the harmonized ending that you use yes yes I think that could

Eryn: 19:11

be forever we have to give credit to dina for that, and also christian and my whole retreat group honestly I'll be excited to hear that.

Kerri: 19:21

But do I have to bleep out the first part? No, no.

Jennifer: 19:28

We had a whole episode about the. F word no-transcript.

Kerri: 19:38

I think fuck yeah, it's funnier.

Eryn: 19:42

I like both, but yeah, you know, maybe that should be the end of our podcast is a good old fuck, yeah.

Kerri: 19:49

For now and ever, I love it Forever and ever.

Jennifer: 19:53

Amen Fuck yeah, since we kind of jumped into the talking a little bit about the retreat, one of the things we were going to do and I really thought a lot about this question and I feel like it's something that the listeners, people who have attended the retreat should kind of get the vibe from was the difference between the 2024 retreat and the 2025 retreat, like the feel, the vibe, because we all talked about that at length, about how chill 2025 felt, like how not I don't 23 and 24 uh-huh, I meant 23 and 24.

Jennifer: 20:31

Yeah, 23 and 24. The difference between 23 and 24 was that you know 24. I just feel like, and maybe it because it wasn't our second one, but also because we had, you know. I mean not that we didn't put Brooke and Aaron through the ringer for the first one, I just feel like, and maybe it cause it wasn't our second one, but also because we had, you know. I mean not that we didn't put Brooke and Aaron through the ringer for the first one, cause we did, but it just felt we had a lot of conversation about how much more chill and connected we felt going into it. I'm not sure if I'm saying that correctly. Do you guys remember that conversation?

Tracy: 21:00

Yeah.

Kerri: 21:02

I think the nervousness of the first one had wore off, like we weren't really sure how it was going to go, and this time we had an idea.

Tracy: 21:10

I think in the first year I knew we could do it. You guys needed to do it to know that you could do it. Does that make sense? Yeah, and then, after you guys had done it, it was like now we all have that feeling of oh yeah, we can do this, we do this, this is our thing.

Kerri: 21:27

I don't think I ever questioned if we could do it. I knew we could do it. I guess what I didn't know was like how I was going to survive it. And I knew, coming into the second one, that for me I always tell people it's hard for me to be around groups of people for a long amount of time. I feel like I personally like exude so much energy or absorb so much energy from being around groups of people that I sometimes just want to get away from the group of people. I think I knew better how to care for myself going into this one, knowing that I was going to spend a whole weekend with a whole bunch of ladies.

Jennifer: 22:07

That's a great takeaway, carrie. It's funny because I think after all of this time, carrie and I have figured out that we're a lot alike in that way and we also both snore. And when we were going to room together down in New Orleans, we were both like, oh, this is good, because we'll both be able to, like, pull ourselves out of it and just go to bed. We need to just just disappear, yeah.

Kerri: 22:31

I know it's fine.

Jennifer: 22:32

That's a very good takeaway because we needed to experience that. Well, both of you guys said but we needed to experience that so that we could know that about our. You know our ourselves within that specific environment. You know when to pull back and not push too far and keep ourselves grounded and yeah, I think the two of you were able to verbalize your needs too.

Tracy: 22:55

Well, not just the two of you, but everybody was able to verbalize their needs, like, hey, I can't do this, I need you to do this. And then we were jumping in and helping each other out when those things happen.

Kerri: 23:04

Yeah, for sure. How about you? Mere 24 to 25. What was the difference? Like going into it?

Eryn: 23:10

23 to 24.

Kerri: 23:11

Yeah.

Mary: 23:14

We've written it down wrong in the notes.

Eryn: 23:16

Because we're so excited for the 2025 retreat.

Tracy: 23:19

I know Right, I think Jen's psychic and has already experienced it and it's so awesome and chill that if it's chiller than that then, bring it on, no planning needed.

Kerri: 23:35

We're just going to show up and wing it, just kidding.

Eryn: 23:39

We've got a lot of time to do it. Disclaimer we do a lot of planning.

Mary: 23:43

We will not wing it my word this year is not wink it because it's two words, but nonetheless. So I agree with Tracy that, having had some muscle memory, we knew space, we had a reasonable level of expectation of how the flow would go. So I felt a lot calmer this year.

Tracy: 24:12

I also love that we built time in the schedule for us to experience activities, versus each of us leading two workshops on Saturday. We built time for us to participate as well, and I think it was really important for me that we were learners as well as educators. I think sometimes we forget to do that and we forget to take care of ourselves.

Mary: 24:30

Because the year before we wanted to pack in as much as we could so that the value of the experience was commensurate with the cost of it. That people were paying, so, but in that that first year we really depleted ourselves because we were doing double workshops, and so I agree with that as well. Allowing us to explore the other workshops that were offered was really nice.

Kerri: 24:58

I really enjoyed my workshop too. It was just fun. So I did a paint and pass workshop, and that's what Erin was alluding talking about earlier, and it enjoyed my workshop too. It was just fun. So I did a paint and pass workshop and that's Aaron was alluding talking about earlier and it was just super fun. And both of my cousins were in it too. So I don't know, I mean it was special and it was fun. I mean everyone that was there was special. I loved the whole group. I loved everyone that was around that table.

Tracy: 25:18

Girls, before we move on, I'm really interested in your perspective. I know we put you to work a little bit in 23. Well, we put you to work quite a lot, but you were more participants in 23 and in 24, you were part of the team. So what was that like for you, that transition?

Brooke: 25:35

I would say for me personally, the transition was very seamless. I felt like growing up. We have always gone to these events with you guys and we've always planned and prepared and done artwork for it, blown up balloons, done XYZ. So in the back of my mind, going into 2023, while being a guest, I was very prepared to be put to work. But just the difference of it going into 2024 and actually having my own workshop and knowing I was actually kind of a behind the scenes person, it just made it a little bit more special.

Eryn: 26:07

I agree 100%. 2023 we've always been like I don't know how to describe it other than boots on the ground Like mom, what do you need and how can I do that? All right, give me the task and I will do it. So 2023 was very special as well, for us to experience more as a participant, but we also I felt like we were also part of you know, planning and executing all the things that needed to be done. And then 2024, like Brooke said, having my own workshop and helping to coordinate. More was seamless but also incredible, and you know that's why we're here, that's why we are doing the work and we're part of the group now. So definitely was a very special experience both years.

Tracy: 26:58

But in just different ways. What I heard is that we conditioned them to work for us.

Jennifer: 27:07

Blaze labor. Their poor little balloon tying fingers.

Eryn: 27:11

Their little balloon, tying fingers that were high on helium.

Tracy: 27:17

I, just for the record, need to say that Brooke and Erin were not tying balloons, they were chasing each other around. Even Bridget and Brianna were tying balloons.

Jennifer: 27:30

Okay. So, because I have this going on, you had mentioned, erin, that we should talk about our workshops, and I know I did the writing one. I don't remember anything else. That's what I did, right, you did a sound bath you did a sound bath for all of us.

Jennifer: 27:54

Oh, I did do like a little mini sound bath. That's true, yeah, yeah, that's true, oh Lord. So I thought maybe you know I'm trying to remind myself too. I was also chomping at the bit to talk about the favorite highlights, you know, because it's just been nice to revisit it with joy in 2025. But, yeah, the book writing workshop for those that went to that, they will recall that it was a stepping stone.

Jennifer: 28:25

We didn't get deeply into book writing, but we got the basic gist of what we were going to do. I used the hero's story for the basis. We used women who run with wolves to talk about what myth is like. Then we just started talking about our lives with each other, which is really what happened. A lot, I think, there were a lot of people who really needed the support of other people, who understood and people were sharing and vulnerable and making connections of similar life experiences. It was really kind of very powerful and that was amazing, like I was really blessed to get to know more people deeply in that setting and continue to kind of like create relationships with those people.

Jennifer: 29:10

I want to shout out to Stacey because I want to talk about the dance, because when she told us how long we were going to be dancing for, I was like, oh hell, no, that's not going to happen, because I don't know if you guys remember, but I wasn't doing so hot, like physically. I was like, oh hell, no, that's not going to happen because I don't know if you guys remember, but I wasn't doing so hot, like physically. I was like there's that, that's like that's a really long time for someone who's super healthy to dance, for what, like? I was suddenly like, oh no, I can't do this. And then I did.

Jennifer: 29:37

I was in it the entire time. It did not feel like I couldn't, even there was no time, right, there was no, it was timeless because it was all just this big blending of movement and emotion and you know, story and song and connecting and weaving and just, oh my God, it was crazy fun, crazy good, got a little wild at times, I think, as you know, some of us were the leaders in that area, the wild side Boy. It really just. It went by so quickly compared to what my initial thought of it was going to be that I definitely have been seeking out more opportunities to dance like that and really be present in the moment.

Tracy: 30:20

So I think the ecstatic dance was so lovely. Jen, again, I was with you. I was like man, that's a long time to dance, but okay, I'm up for whatever. You guys, you are 1000% correct. It was so good. So I had the opportunity to facilitate a polar plunge, but it wasn't polar because it was the beginning of October, so it and the lake was gorgeous.

Mary: 30:42

but it was still. I was cold.

Tracy: 30:48

It was not polar vortex cold. Actually, the water was so nice and warm compared to outside that it was refreshing in the opposite way, cause you're going from cold outside into warmer water. I don't know, but I was nervous about facilitating it to begin with. You had to get up really early because we wanted to hit the sunrise and people had so much fun Saturday night that a lot of people that had said they were going to do it were not up yet, and so I was a little anxious about that. But there was a core group that walked over together and it has got to be like on the highlight reel of my life. There is an image from that day where I'm doing a sun salutation with two amazing women and you can see the sun coming up and we had gone in without our tops, which was not something that I thought I would ever be able to do, and it was. It's tasteful, it's the back. It's not like a gross image. It wouldn't have been a gross image anyway. Yeah, we got gross.

Tracy: 31:53

Gross is the wrong word. It wasn't an inappropriate for Instagram image.

Mary: 31:58

That's what I'm looking for.

Tracy: 31:59

Pornographic. There was no nipples in it, I don't know no tater tits Like. Even if there were. No tater tits Jennifer. Like even if there were, I'll. Tater tits Jennifer Again. Highlight reel of my life. I plan on getting the image blown up and hanging it in my house. It was one of the most magical moments ever. It was so cool.

Kerri: 32:21

Love it. So I wanted to share a couple other things I kind of just impromptu shared before. So the way the workshop it was paint and pass, but we all, like you, were painting a painting that you knew was going to end up with a certain person, like I, would pass my board and say this is errands, and then someone would paint on it for a little while and then they'd pass it and say this is errands. One of my cousin's maiden names is Sailor and she ended up with a boat in hers which just seemed serendipitous and the person who put it in there did not know that. So that was really cool. And then at the end of the painting series, when my other cousins got her painting back, she was stunned and pulled out a photo of one of her favorite photos and the painting we had created was very, very similar, like color, scenery, the whole thing. It was like none of us knew that, but somehow we had created it.

Kerri: 33:17

And that was really cool for me, so I wanted to share that. And then for me, like one of my other favorite moments was our closing. I think partially because I helped plan it. But like I love just sitting and reflecting and that's what we got to do for that portion and like grounding back in before we all said goodbye, I just felt like it was really magical to me and the images that we got from that portion of the retreat probably are some of my favorite images from the weekend. They're gorgeous.

Brooke: 33:53

Yeah. So I ended up holding a goddess reflections workshop. I wanted to keep it rolling off of our 2023 goddess retreat but morph it into our 2024 rewilded retreat. So I had our goddesses rewild and find their reflections to capture more nature materials in it. We embellished mirrors that would hold their reflections and remind them to connect to nature. Everyone individualized their mirrors with a lot of natural arrangements.

Brooke: 34:23

It was a really fun time. A lot of the women ended up opening up during this time, too, and we got to dive deeper into their lives and why they picked some of the arrangements in their mirrors, the symbolism it held behind it. So it was a very important time for me where I got to connect with a lot of the women that I was hosting a class for and we got to create some beautiful pieces that we got to take home with us. That still takes us back to the retreat and the core value of the retreat, which is rewilding. It was just an amazing time. I loved hosting the class and I just have a lot of amazing memories from it.

Kerri: 34:59

Do you have a favorite moment, Brooke, from the whole retreat?

Brooke: 35:02

I will say the dance party probably was my favorite moment. There was no talking aloud during the dance party. You were allowed to make noises as you pleased and laugh and cackle and cry, but there was no talking. So it was a very raw moment for a lot of people and at first it probably was very awkward and people are like, well, what do I do with myself? And I can't talk to anyone. And I feel some of these women probably felt this way. But very quickly a lot of them broke out of their shell with the help of others, rhino-ing with glowing sticks, and it was just. It was so much fun, it was so magical and we got to let loose and be free and howl at the moon and dance on a table and not fall off it was great.

Eryn: 35:58

speaking of rewilding, I got to have my workshop with my wild women learning how to share their voice with the world. So my workshop was teaching the participants how to share their voice with the world. So my workshop was teaching the participants how to sing in an acapella style because of my background in acapella music. So I was lucky enough to have Jen with me, who is a fellow musician, and we learned a lot about beatboxing and how to blend our voices, but also how to stand out when we need to. And then we were able to share our beautiful song with the entire retreat group before our dinner. And something that was very, very important to me was having each woman have their own solo and sing out the solo line. And the song that we sang was Girl on Fire, which I felt was very appropriate for our retreat, and I let people pick what solo they wanted.

Eryn: 37:00

One of my favorite parts of the retreat was Dina singing her solo. She did incredible and she really connected with her wild woman and we ended my my workshop we were practicing for our performance for the other women and said you know, how do we end this, how do we end this song? And I believe it was dina who said why don't we harmonize? Fuck yeah. So you know what we did. We did that Because, fuck yeah, we did that.

Mary: 37:36

I loved it.

Eryn: 37:37

It was incredible and I loved it too. I would say my favorite part of the retreat was also the dance party and playing with Brooke like we were children again, because Brooke and I are childhood best friends. So it was really nice to reconnect with everyone and be pushed out of my comfort zone, like I talked about earlier with dance, because even though I'm a musician, that does not mean I'm a dancer.

Mary: 38:03

My contribution workshop was to get out into the wild and do a nature hike, and so I guided the group on the campus down to the water. Inspired by the book Braiding Sweetgrass, I did a reading down there about the creation of earth. We walked up into the woods. I identified native perennials. I actually did the entire hike barefoot, which was really cool Nobody else did it with me but like it was muddy and slippery and cold and hot, and so that was really cool for me, not for anybody else, but I really got something out of that Helped me to be more present in the experience, you know, and not thinking too much in my head about what the next step was going to be.

Mary: 38:59

And so my favorite part the retreat would be the communal dinner, where, by the time we got to dinner, we've gotten to know one another. The tablescape was amazing. It looked like it was straight out of a Gothic castle. And then we did a group giving of thanks to all the creatures of the world, the natural world, and then we sat for this communal meal that was delicious and prepared with intentionality, because we all have different preferences of the kind of food that we eat, and I just felt nourished by that, and then of course the music, the song singing, and then the dance party, and so it's just all rolled into one was just my favorite part.

Kerri: 39:49

Mary, you're reminding me. One of the other parts that I loved is I had created that backdrop and we did like a step and shoot, photo shoot and I loved those photos. The photos that came from that were just so wonderful and it was fun to share them back with everybody. So they have just a memory of that night and I don't know. I just thought it was cool.

Mary: 40:09

Yes, and then you created that video with fire around us and each of the pictures, so that was super funny. I love that.

Kerri: 40:21

We were girls on fire. The next thing we are going to talk about is the excitement we have about creating something for 2025. Kind of to let our listeners know where we are, other than knowing we're going to create something.

Tracy: 40:42

As soon as you said that, I started humming the song in my head that Erin said might go with this.

Kerri: 40:47

Oh I don't know what that song is Andra Day. Rise Up. So, erin do you want to talk about, or Brooke, you guys started looking at places for us. Maybe talk about the process. So I guess that's something our listeners don't know is that we do know that we're not going to be hosting our retreat in the same location we have. For the past two years, aaron and Brooke kind of have been looking at some spaces for us. So I don't do you guys have anything to share from that experience?

Eryn: 41:14

Yeah, I would say that we were looking for a more private venue that still allowed us to explore the grounds and explore nature. But our previous venue was a little bit more public just because it was right on the lake, so there were a lot of neighbors. Is a little bit more public just because it was right on the lake, so there were a lot of neighbors. So we were looking for something a little bit more private, but we still wanted that camp style.

Brooke: 41:39

I'll let Brooke talk a little bit more about that. Oh Lord, Well, going into this process of finding a retreat center to host today, I was talking around with a couple people and my grandma had mentioned up this one beautiful place. Can I speak of this, or am I going to get like like slandered?

Eryn: 41:57

Just don't say the name.

Brooke: 41:59

Okay. So we found this beautiful place and they had so many amazing amenities for us. They had a spa area, just everything and anything you could think of. And here I'm sitting here, thinking, okay, they're gonna give us like a hefty price tag for this and I already know in the back of my head that we're not going to be able to do it here, but I'm just so interested because it's so beautiful and for a group of 25 women, they slapped me with a $32,000 price tag. So I said, erin, take it away.

Tracy: 42:41

We were on the phone with. Brooke, and we're all like where's the comma?

Eryn: 42:48

So we're looking at some different camps in the area and we have one very promising camp right now that we're leaning towards. It's a beautiful rustic camp that's in the woods. It's private but there's a lot of acreage to hike, there's a private pond, it's just a beautiful area. So the t sisters are all planning to meet there this weekend to kind of finalize things, but right now we definitely are leaning towards one.

Tracy: 43:16

And girls, we have a word too. Since you're the newbies, you want to talk about the word.

Brooke: 43:21

So we have decided our word for 2025 is going to be Fries Wait, what Fries Fries?

Eryn: 43:36

Fries.

Tracy: 43:38

I heard fries again. You got to do it again.

Eryn: 43:42

Fries Yummy fries.

Tracy: 43:48

Fries, I love it.

Eryn: 43:50

As Brooke talked earlier about butterflies and metamorphosis, we had talked about the natural progression of our themes, how we started with the goddess retreat, really identifying yourself as a goddess and then moving into the rewilding, that metamorphosis, that transformation of you know, returning to the wild and then then rise. You have done the work and now.

Brooke: 44:14

Let's rise up with 2025 retreat, let's rise, yeah. So with that, I either envision, like this beautiful butterfly coming out of its cocoon, or a badass phoenix rising from the embers A badass phoenix rising from the embers.

Tracy: 44:30

Which is super cool, because that is exactly what my vision was when I did the group hypnosis was a phoenix. So I'm super excited about our word, about the progression and about my new tattoo that I'm going to get on my arm. That is going to be a phoenix, so stay tuned.

Jennifer: 44:50

Or did you point?

Tracy: 44:50

to your right arm. I did point to my right arm. I'm going to put it on my right arm, jen, so that if I'm holding a microphone the audience can't see. So picture my right arm held up like I'm talking on a microphone. I'm going to put it right here so you could see it if I was on the microphone.

Jennifer: 45:04

That is exactly where mine is on my left arm. Are you kidding me? I'm not kidding you.

Tracy: 45:09

What Now we're going to have to do pictures.

Jennifer: 45:14

Yes, it might be important to let people know that we do listen to the feedback and we do take that into consideration along with our own learns. You know there's a more significant number of you than there are of us so we do take that feedback and we do apply it of you than there are of us. So we do take that feedback and we do apply it. You know, hopefully that people see that, that our return guests and appreciate that because we have a cohesive unit here. The retreat is still a work in progress, so I always appreciate people's honesty because it's a place of growth for us. We continue to, like everyone has mentioned, there's kind of like a thread that flows out from the retreat and into our lives and continues to be this transformative process for everyone involved. So of course, we're hoping people come back. We're looking forward to crafting a new experience with you guys.

Tracy: 46:05

Yeah, and I just can. I just add like a little nugget there, jen. Since the last retreat, we use an app to keep our group together and it helps us during the retreat to if there's an announcement like hey, go to the cafeteria here or hey, this is ways that whenever there's a holiday or whenever, like the moon is in a certain phase, there are these beautiful pictures. People are keeping up with each other's lives. I love this community so much and it's so fulfilling every time somebody posts there that.

Brooke: 46:42

I'm just like. Can I also say this community and platform that we've made for the retreat is very amazing because, like Tracy said, since coming out of the retreat back in October, it's now January and we have continued to talk on this platform, but not just about holidays and big things happening. There are women that come forward when they're going through hardships in their lives and when they are going through divorce and finding new houses and just need that little boost of morale and need their community to come forward to support them in that time of need, and that's what this platform has really provided for a lot of these women. So it's amazing what this retreat has done.

Tracy: 47:19

Yeah, these women and us too. It feels like we're part of an extended family. It's so beautiful. That's the goal, big community.

Jennifer: 47:28

We are doing this, not just community building.

Brooke: 47:31

We're not a cult, we're a community no, don't edit it out.

Kerri: 47:38

I love that we are not a cult.

Tracy: 47:43

We are community tea. Tea love it. Well done, well played. Will you make that bumper sticker?

Kerri: 47:57

sure, we're not a cult, we're a community.

Tracy: 48:02

That's amazing for those of you who have had a history with tea, you know that we've used tea in a lot of different ways, like we used to call the guys that we were married to when they helped us. Well, one year at a Mardi Gras, we called the guys teabackers and we made them shirts. They had the design of a teabag on the bottom of the back of their shirts.

Mary: 48:23

A whale tail right, Not a teabag Teabag, not bag Teabag.

Jennifer: 48:31

That's an entirely different image.

Tracy: 48:33

Oh my God, A teabag. The teabag would be on the front.

Jennifer: 48:43

I don't know. I thought the teabag was on the bottom.

Tracy: 48:47

Too many teabagging at the Mardi Gras.

Mary: 48:57

Teabag.

Jennifer: 48:58

I think I need hearing aids in my year 50. You're going to start getting those invitations in the mail.

Mary: 49:04

Now that I've said it yes, To those dinners where they're trying to sell the miracle ear.

Tracy: 49:11

This is why we had to bring in younger people, because we're losing our hearing.

Kerri: 49:17

Who else is going to read the labels? I love it All right. So, tracy, we are at the end of our time. Do you want to tell us how to make tea?

Tracy: 49:26

I would love to tell you how to make tea. Keri, this is a new season. We are going to be tying our tea making back to our theme and our word, which is rise, and so we challenge you, our listeners, to come up with your own word and put it someplace where it is displayed prominently for you to revisit, remind yourself of all of the things that you need to do to commit to that word. So, for me, of itself, when I'm making a decision, having that word visible will help me be reminded that part of my decision making will be making sure that I have considered myself. And Jen will be considering joy, and Aaron will be considering creativity, and Mary is going to be considering play, and Carrie is going to be considering alignment, and Brooke is going to be considering transformation. Did I get everybody? You did.

Jennifer: 50:25

All right, so that's how we spilled the tea.

Kerri: 50:28

All right, so that's how we spilled the tea. So that's our updates. Friends, we hope you'll stay tuned as we navigate what's ahead. We're committed to planning our next retreat and inviting you to join us for a magical weekend in 2025. We hope to bring you biweekly episodes of Spill the Tea in the near future and hope you will listen in and hear all the ways we're growing together. Fuck.

Brooke: 50:52

Yeah, hope you will listen in and hear all the ways we're growing together, fuck yeah.