Welcome to Soul-Full Space Retreats. We’re delighted that you've found us and we’d love to journey with you - for a while at least.
As I'm sure you know by now, life never unfolds in a straight line but meanders across smooth ground and rough, taking us where we weren’t hoping to go and meeting us with many surprises along the way. At times it can leave us bewildered as well as hopeful, tired as well as energised, in sorrow as well as in joy. For much of the time, in today’s fast paced world, it can also seem as if we’re being carried along by a wave that we have no control over.
Soul-Full Space Retreats provide a space in which to take a deep breath alongside God taking time to reflect on our lives, past, present and future. They provide a safe space in which to journey with your heart, what it needs, what it desires and what God is inviting and offering. We provide space in which to encounter your internal world, make discoveries and move forward with hope and fresh perspective. In community with others and alone, you will make rich and meaningful discoveries about yourself which bring illumination to the next steps along the path.
At Soul-Full Space our aim is to provide a warm, hospitable welcome for you to come as you are, finding grace and acceptance. Our time together will include contemplative prayer times providing the opportunity to listen, reflect and simply be - giving your heart the space it needs to have a voice as well as offering helpful questions to ponder. We will use creative journalling and provide ways in which you can participate in this using not only words, but other forms of artistic expression - hopefully there will be something on offer that resonates with your way of connecting to yourself and God. As we move beyond the taster day, other forms of creative expression will be offered in order to take you on a deeper journey. We also provide opportunity to be heard by others in the group but facilitated by us. This space will be safe, confidential and not a time for offering advice, answers or discussion. Although this can be seen as serious stuff, our retreats are also full of laughter, good food and plenty of cake! We think you’ll leave them not only having gone on a journey with your heart but also with others - there is strength and encouragement in walking with others - you never know, new friendships may be waiting.
Your Hosts
We’re Yvonne and Nicky and met over 23 years ago by becoming family. Nicky is married to Yvonne’s brother and since that time we have been firm friends. Over the years we have both travelled through dark valleys and faced suffering and struggle but we have also known great joy and hope with plenty to celebrate along the way.
Yvonne is an extraordinarily creative woman (I Nicky am allowed to say that as the writer of these particular words!). Her love of everything creative started at a very young age with sewing, knitting, making and experimenting. Upon leaving school she trained at Bath College getting a BEd Degree in Fashion and Textiles. She has continued to pursue her creative journey whilst having three children, fostering countless others and developing her current business, She currently runs regular sewing retreats - go here for more on those, they come highly recommended - http://yvonnetemple.co.uk/ and creative workshops. She’s always coming up with new creative ideas and it seems that this well is a never ending source of beauty and grace to the world. She not only brings the creative element to our times together but is also an incredibly warm, sensitive gentle and loving human being.
Nicky has done all sorts over the years including having been on and being on her own creative journey. More recently she studied for a Diploma in Fibre Arts in New Brunswick, Canada where her and her husband Mike were then living. In the last couple of years she has found her “home” in the world of contemplation, stillness and prayer. Alongside this she is a Spiritual Director and one of her greatest joys is to companion others as they journey through life with God. For more about what Spiritual Direction is and how it can help you please visit https://nickytemple.co.uk/ . For Nicky, life is a mixture of the contemplative journey of prayer, solitude and quiet alongside connecting with others through her Spiritual Direction work and retreat leading - and of course friendship! She seeks to maintain a balance between the two which sometimes gets challenged through the demands of life.
Yvonne lives with her partner Simon in Stoke Gabriel near Totnes. Her children are now grown up and married and she has (to date!) 2 beautiful grandchildren. She loves the great outdoors and is very happy when walking, sailing, and cycling her way through it.
Nicky lives in Colaton Raleigh with her husband Mike and their gorgeous Yellow Labrador, Moth. Nicky’s step-children are also grown up and living independent lives but grandchildren are on the horizon. She loves walking, coffee shops and reading in front of a warm woodburner.
We are both really excited about this new journey and cannot wait for you to join us.
Yvonne and Nicky xx
