For a scene.... picture of a clan of something. Either animal, flowers. That symbolizes we are all individual but a clan/goup nonetheless. Each one of us contributing in our own way. Like a family of sorts...

How does a sports theme sound. Something that would require success to be attained by working as a team.
Or an amusement park theme, where we could have a dunk tank...in which we could offer prizes to the first person that dunks the organizer.
We sort of made the last one into a slumber party theme and that seemed to work for some but maybe not all of us wants to stay up all night making 3 am runs to Walmart:)
I like the idea of Karoake... we could have fun with that!

I was looking forward to the slumber party since I've never actually been to one. Ever. And I feel so deprived.

Those suggestions were probably moot, since from what I remember we just naturally gravitated to the slumberparty atmosphere. The only thing were were missing what eating pizza in the middle of the night. Maybe the Atkinson's would be so kind as to make a stop at a pizza place for us in the middle of the night on their way back from Krispie Kreme.

Yea and they all closed up here too:(

Hey how does a slumber party with Karoake sound? Bill doesn't hang around late and Matt and Tonya are usually in bed early, so that would give us something fun to do. And since they wouldn't leave the video camera out for us to use while they slept, we better bring our own! I got one, Carmens got one, who else?

Are we doing a sweatlodge this year again? I liked that part. If we are can we help make it? Or is that breaking with tradition?

Oh and Stehtfest, this can be like your very first slumber party and there were even a few houses nearby so we can let you experience 'ding dong ditch'.....We're going to have to have Tonya waiting on the street in her van with the lights out, because I don't know if us smokers will be able to make it back to the camp without getting caught:) So its not exactly like a teenage slumber party, but pretty darn close!

Yes, we'll do the sweatlodge, Yes, pizza is an option.

But I need themes...THEMES!

Some ideas:
Maybe "Rising Above the storm" and the image of an eagle, per Bill's parable last year?
"The Light Within" and a sunrise picture?

uh....your themes are much more eloquent than mine:) (I guess I didn't understand the word themes)

Rising above the storm.....I like it!

yep! thats what i was going to agree with too, Judy. Bill's 'rising above the storm'.
That has come up a lot with people since the last retreat, I've heard the image used a lot since May.

How about this?

Picture it....

A storm

A bolt of lightning hitting the ground, a pile of ashes

Out of it, a Phoenix.

Theme: Rising obove the storm or Out of the Ashes.

Lame? Yes, I like to be dramatic WHENEVER possible, lol

Or a pretty lotus flower. All I got there :)

Last year, the thing that stuck with me the most was oh so close to what you said Matt - it was actually one of the steps required to rise above - it was to lock your wings. I guess it means alot to me because, it seems like much of my life has been spent knowing WHERE I want and need to be, but struggling with how to get there. Bill made such great sense to me when he told me not only to rise above the storm, but that, in order to get there, I would have to lock my wings...and not struggle so hard to MAKE it happen, but do the one thing that would inevitably ALLOW it to happen almost effortlessly - to lock my wings. (notice I took his message quite literally for me, lol...I know he was talking to us all, but sometimes, when he spoke, it was just he and I in that room..I was completely lost in his voice and his words).

Sorry. This was of no help to your post. It just reminded me. Gosh, last time was so very special to me.

Oh, and as for the karaoke idea Judy has....OH MY GOSH...that would be TOOOO much fun...I have a karaoke thing I could ship ahead if you'd like....and we can all bring CDs of karaoke we'd like to mess around with. My karaoke plays CDs and cassettes, and can accommodate two mics at a time. It will also connect to a TV and play the graphics on the screen...just like a real karaoke bar, hehehe.

Gosh, a theme...I don't know. I'm not good at that kind of thing really. I mean I can take another's idea and run to the hills with it. Not so much the original idea though.

Well if there's going to be pizza then I'll definitely have to raise some money to get over there :)
I suppose beer, pizza and a good cheesey B-movie isn't really an appropriate theme though? (I think I'll duck out of the karaoke for everyone's sake, my singing is only slightly more tuneful than my cat's!)

I seem to recall that there was an eagle design being considered for first retreat T-shirts, maybe that could be somehow re-worked?

For some reason I was also thinking of a lotus image; I think it was the idea of the thousand-petalled lotus that somehow stood out for me when Judy was talking about us being all unique and different but also connected. I don't know how well that image would blend in with the eagle, though? Does anyone feel up to the challenge of designing that? Or is there another flower that would suffice in place of the lotus?

A lotus would be a good image. Actually, any kind of flower would be, even one with a hummingbird or something.

An eagle is a great symbol, if a bit overused, unfortunately.

Butterflies are good images, especially if the theme is something about transformation and healing.

What about a lotus with the words that are on the pic from the group gallery? The postsecret one about staying in a bud?

What are we naming the retreat again?

Personally, I really like the lotus image. We have used that as a group a lot of times as a descriptive image during discussions.

Lotus? I was thinking more along the lines of oreos or donuts...I can just picture the t-shirts...

Seriously, I really like the lotus image.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/lotus/diosagitana/me-ness/lotus.png?o=175

http://media.photobucket.com/image/lotus/jjsunshyne/Lotus.jpg?o=236
http://media.photobucket.com/image/lotus/sKoTtYdOnT/lotus.jpg?o=465
http://media.photobucket.com/image/lotus/prettykitty3916/Lotus_Dream_by_lazykobolds.jpg?o=722

http://media.photobucket.com/image/lotus/Reverand33/lotus-430r.jpg?o=1139
http://media.photobucket.com/image/lotus/FAYOKA/Cool/Lotus.jpg?o=1601

http://media.photobucket.com/image/lotus/andreamnguyen/k006.jpg?o=1787