The Sanctuary Northwest

My dear friends—

I have written multiple versions of this blog over the last 6 months. The world is so full right now. I’ve felt reluctant to add more to it. I keep asking myself: what is appropriate right now? What is necessary? What is being called for? Where can I be patient? Most responses that I have seen and considered—to COVID-19, to only the most recent of a long history of racial justice uprising, to all the small and large struggles occurring under the radar—feel overwhelmingly inadequate to the horror, grief and trauma and we are having to reckon with within each of our own bodies, and in the the body of our communities and nation.

I am choosing to do my best to remain steadfast in advocating for and restoring health to the little corner of the universe I have been given to steward, sensing that beneath my white striving to be seen “doing the right thing” I know in my bones that there is profound cohesion between what I have wanted to share in this blog and what we are experiencing acutely as a collective. What these past weeks and months have validated for me is that we need so many more people doing their own healing. And we need places of sanctuary to do that healing. And we need ways to understand that our individual wounds are fractal replicas of collective wounds, like white supremacy, misogyny, xenophobia, transphobia and ecocide. And we need sources and tools of nourishment and compassion and rest and relationship and trust. And we need them yesterday.

A small community of friends and I have been dreaming for years of a retreat and respite center for trauma survivors. The last 10 months I’ve been pursuing it with more focus and support, and we are finally making movement towards manifesting that dream.

I welcome you to The Sanctuary Northwest.

The Sanctuary Northwest is a center for holistic trauma resilience, spiritual wellness, and cultural restoration. Our mission is to transform the lives of trauma survivors for the better; and to nurture strong resilient families, communities and ecosystems where all life thrives.

You’ll notice we are in our sprouting phase—that means our offerings are simple or still in the works, and no, we don’t have a physical “center”…yet! But our intention is to build community and support around common purpose and current offerings as a virtual “infrastructure” that will be able to easily land onto actual land when it becomes available to us.

The offerings of the Sanctuary Northwest are a synthesis of years of working to integrate embodiment practice, spiritual formation, trauma-informed care, rhythms of nature, ancestral healing, gender and racial identity work, the joy of queerness, systems analysis, sacred activism and transformative justice. Consider this e-mail our “soft launch”—this is a tender shoot I’m somewhat nervously daring to share with you, as my friends and family! I’d truly love to hear what you think, what speaks to you, and what questions you have!

While you’re there, make sure to sign up for our inaugural communal practice:
Stillness at the Center
A Contemplative Pause for Busy People
Friday August 7th, 6:30-8pm PCT

Take a moment out seasonally to rest, breath, listen and be. This offering is an invitation to sync up with the rhythms of the natural world, attune to the seasons and to the quiet stirrings of one's inner world through communal practice of grounding, song, interspiritual prayer/meditation, and contemplative reading designed to integrate and deepen the experience of the Sacred into our daily lives.

This is geared towards people of any or no spiritual tradition who:

• Desire a deeper spiritual life

• Desire a deeper connection to spiritual community

• Desire a deeper connection to the Earth and to Spirit

• Have support in processing trauma, and want to add a spiritual dimension to their trauma healing

• Are processing loss, grief, or significant life change

• Are addicted to stress or busyness

People of all or no faith/spiritual traditions welcome. Some meditation experience may be helpful, but not required.

2020 Dates: Monthly, Fridays, 6:30-8pm:
August 7th
September 18th
October 30th
November 20th

This is FREE. Donations are welcome through Venmo @Kate-Fontana-1.
Gatherings will occur via Zoom. All are welcome. RSVP required.

Also, just as a head’s up, over the coming months I’ll be shifting and downgrading the frequency with which I send e-mails from my katefontana.com account. That will mostly be for my individual psychic and spiritual mentorship work (I’ve modified all my offers there to reflect this redistribution). So if you’d like to keep hearing from me, and growing with this new body of work, please make sure to sign up for our Sanctuary Northwest newsletter.