This month’s meeting will focus us on breaking the trauma cycle and overcoming abusive relationships. We will be examining the archetypal matches that arise around abusive relationships. Part of our time together will be centered around how authentic spirituality takes shape in connection to abusive relationships. And we will be talking about steps to break free from these types of relationships.

This month’s conversation is devoted to rituals.

Rituals are a way of making something invisible, visible and tangible. They’re important ways to stay connected with ourselves and with others. Join us for a discussion on the importance of ritual, ways that we can implement them in our lives to maintain  a sense of community, as well as  benefit our mental and spiritual health. As veterans and other trauma survivors, rituals can be a key element in our healing and post trauma growth.

If you have a ritual you would like to share with the community, please bring it!

Our guest speaker, Don McCasland, is a 20+ year veteran has developed his own ritual to guide him through his trauma. Therapy was helpful, but Don quickly realized that this alone would not help him deal with his experiences. Ritual helped him to connect with his inner strengths, to not only deal with past experiences, but to be able to face any challenges he might have in the future.

The Fall of Kabul mirrored in many ways the Fall of Saigon, ending a never-ending war in Afghanistan, with the Taliban regaining control, leaving many who served in this war feeling betrayed by our leaders, and full of anger and shame over the abandonment of those who helped us and trusted us. Like Viet Nam, many are asking  ‘What was it all for?’ This month, our Gathering of Warriors is focused on healing our fighters and their families who served in this campaign, and who are confronting the sorrow, shame, grief, and moral injuries accumulated over many deployments. We will discuss and share how the War in Afghanistan has impacted and changed us as a people and nation. We invite all who love our men and women who served to join us for this very important evening of healing.

This month’s session will be led by Robert LeHeup, the founder of Bullets and Bandaids. When we come back from war, many of us don’t know what to do with the story trapped inside of us. Bullets and Bandaids is a solution that uses creative expression to bridge the gap between veterans and civilians. They match veterans with writers and artists to tell their stories through original collaborative artwork, presented in a touring art show. Robert will be sharing veteran stories and the artwork that emerged from the collaboration with the group, and offer a short demonstration of how this process works.

Robert LeHeup joined the Marine Corps infantry in 2000 and was part of the initial push into Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, where he received a Certificate of Commendation for his participation in the capture of the Kandahar Airport, as well as the Navy Achievement Medal for the taking of the Embassy in Kabul. Leaving the Marine Corps as a sergeant, he began working with artists in multiple different media and dedicated hundreds of hours and raised thousands of dollars for local charities, as well as volunteering to teach creative writing to underprivileged children in and inmates in detention centers in North and South Carolina. He’s a graduate from the University of South Carolina, where he won awards for outstanding work in the field of Writing for Media Arts. He is also a member of the Global Alliance for a Peaceful Earth, or AGAPE.

Our guest speaker this month is Linda Thai. Linda’s presentation draws upon research literature as well as narrative reconstruction of her lived experiences as a Vietnamese Boat Person. Linda will speak about  intergenerational trauma, and the impact of forced migration, combined with acculturation and enculturation pressures upon the subsequent generation. As we know, unnameable losses cannot be grieved, and can manifest as clinical expressions of mental illness. Ambiguous grief – once named – will allow us to forge a collective path of healing and reclamation.

Since the earliest days of decorating the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers with flowers, we have come together as a nation to remember our fallen. On Memorial Day, we honor and grieve for those who've made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation. Memorial Day is more than laying wreaths down or placing flags. It is a sacred day of solemnity as we reflect on the sacrifices made by those whose voices we never heard but who paid with their life for our freedoms. We pause for communal mourning, remembrance, song, honor and making meaning. Our Memorial Day ceremony is designed to ensoul the community with the true intent behind the holiday, which, in truth, is a very holy day. Please join Dr. Edward Tick, Kate Dahlstedt, and Charlie Pacello for the 7th Annual Memorial Day retreat sponsored by Rowe Conference Center on Monday May 31st, from 11-2 PM EST. We hope you will find hope, healing, and meaning with us this coming Memorial Day.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Frederick Marx (Hoop Dreams, etc) will join us, premiere a short trailer on war healing and join us in discussion and action toward memorializing our losses and healing from violence.