About this Event
Reclaiming the Wild Self
Come to the sea. Remember your skin. Return to yourself.
Nestled beside the sea, where the tides whisper stories older than memory, this day-long women's retreat invites you into the ancient selkie tale — the seal woman who loses her skin, forgets her wildness, and longs for the moment she can reclaim it and return to the ocean that has always called her home.
Many women know this story in their bones. Through caregiving, expectations, grief, achievement, or simply the demands of daily life, pieces of our authentic selves can become hidden beneath the roles we carry. Like the selkie, we may find ourselves longing for something we cannot quite name — a deeper belonging, a quieter wisdom, a return to the woman we have always been.
What the Day Holds
- Contemplative Weaving — Each woman will create her own symbolic seal skin, intertwining fibers with intentions, memories, and hopes. Thread by thread, the weaving becomes a sacred act of remembering, releasing what no longer serves, and reclaiming the strength, intuition, creativity, and freedom that have never truly been lost.
- A Guided Labyrinth Walk — An embodied pilgrimage inward, at the water's edge.
- Reflective Journaling & Gentle Ritual — Space to listen to your inner voice with compassion and curiosity.
- Circle & Story — We gather to explore this timeless folklore as a mirror for our own lives.
- The Sea, Woven Throughout — Moments of stillness, shared stories, and the healing presence of the water, reminding us that, like the tides, we are always capable of returning to ourselves.
You will leave with more than a woven keepsake. You will carry home a living symbol of your own seal skin — a reminder that your wild self is not something to become, but someone to remember.
The sea has always known your name. This is your invitation to hear it again.
Your hosts:
www.kimberlyheil.com
www.lauriingram.com
Event venue & nearby stays
Mercy by the Sea, 167 Neck Road, Madison, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.