“Held. If I am to choose one word to describe how I feel in Gwen’s presence, it is this. Whether it’s an online gathering, a pre-recorded offering, an in-person retreat, or just casual time together, the deep care and intention Gwen brings to all spaces is gratefully felt. Gwen holds space in a way that is simultaneously powerful and soft, allowing room for all things to be present: joy and wonder, grief and longing, laughter and stillness. Engaging with Gwen’s work facilitates a returning home to myself, over and over again. And the words she brings to spaces, whether gathered or her own, are always deeply nourishing and needed. Thank you Gwen, for creating room for the magic to emerge—something I find it often needs to show itself. ”
Gwendolyn Ren is a Gatherer and a Guide, a facilitator of emergent space.
Gwen (she/they) is a designer, a facilitator, and a vision keeper. She tends spaces and moments that uplift spaciousness, nourishment, creativity, and connection. Braiding meditation and movement, deep rest and deep listening, contemplation and playful curiosity, she designs gatherings that are fertile for both personal growth and community based healing.
Believing in Nature in/as-all-things
she visions a thriving, well rested, and joyfully queer future born from our willingness to dream it together.
Gwendolyn identifies as Yonsei (4th generation Japanese American) with mixed ancestry. She currently splits her time between the wooded shore of Cleveland, Ohio and the top of Peach Mountain at Hope Springs Institute, where she leads in her role as Co-Operations. Her life/work centers place making, and relational acts with both human and other than human beings. She acknowledges that wherever we are in this country we are on indigenous land.
Interested in practicing presence, observation, and the Pause, in uplifting our stories and the joy-grief that we hold, Gwen shares through the container of "Sometimes Silent” Retreats, as a writer and a ceremonialist, in circle and in session, and by invitation and collaboration. She has one book of poetry, as the water moves.
Thinking a lot about access and belonging, sliding scale support and creative exchange is available whenever possible.
Gwendolyn has spent a lifetime as a vision keeper in heartfelt preparation for this work and since 2006 has been professionally designing, planning, producing, and executing complex events near and far, from the intimacy of a feeling to the landscape of an environment. Logistically and creatively, this chapter has evolved into her curation of intentional spaces that support her heart’s mission: to offer containers and practices that stoke healing connection (to self, each other, and greater nature). Facilitating retreat since 2018 she melds experience, skill, and intuition to inspire emergent gatherings.
Gwen draws from creative practice, somatic inquiry, meditation, contemplation, gentle restorative and yin based yoga, reiki, circle, sounding, connection to nature, community based storytelling and place making ritual. Designing retreats that take us through a personal & collective journey: from silence to story, breath to song, stillness to movement, rest to emergence, often collaborating with dear friends to offer diverse voices and practices that lead us home to ourselves and each other.
Spaces of beloved invitation and collaboration include: Abide Yoga, Acupuncture First, ATNSC, Cleveland Museum of Art, Hope Springs Institute, moCa Cleveland, Penland School of Craft, Red Clover Ranch, Samavesa School of Yoga, Willow Room Collective.
Please reach out if you have an idea or would like to explore. I love hearing from you!
