the COMING TO OUR SENSES retreat

THE EXPERIENCE

The Music of the World

David Rothenberg, musician, philosopher, writer of many books on music in the natural world, from birds to whales to bugs to ponds, will take residents out to be part of his latest project: listening to birds singing at dawn. There is a dawn chorus of birdsong all over the world, and surprisingly, scientists have never been able to figure out why.

Through careful listening, reflecting, and paying attention, perhaps we can be the ones to figure it out.

We wake up early in the morning, an hour before the sun comes up, and hear the spring dawn chorus outside Arles when it will be at its finest. Chaffinches, chiff chaffs, song thrushes, orioles, wrens and linnets will offer up their finest tunes. Later in the week we will visit the Pont de Gau bird park full of flamingos and reed warblers. We’ll develop a practice of ‘deep listening’ inspired by the great Pauline Oliveros, with whom Rothenberg worked for many years.

Writing Our Senses

Following on from David’s excursions into bird language and our lived experiences of Arles, Rosalind Brackenbury will lead sessions on the language of sound, sight, smell, taste and physical presence in a new and stimulating place, encouraging participants to write from the body, expressing the experience of sound as well as our other senses.

This is not just for those who already know themselves to be writers, but rather a way for everyone to capture immediate experience in words, whether poetry or prose, in an intimate and personal way.

Listening through Our Bodies

Just as David invites us to listen outwardly to birdsong and the music of place, Nadine Pinede guides us to listen inwardly, to the quiet rhythms of our own bodies and to the healing presence of nature. Drawing on her background as a poet and teacher of mindful self-compassion, she leads sessions where writing and somatic practice meet.

We will explore how our bodies carry memory and resilience, much like the layered landscapes of Provence, and how artists such as Vincent van Gogh turned to the natural world as companion and witness. Through reflective writing and gentle embodied exercises, participants will learn to rewild their senses, carry ancestral wisdom forward, and cultivate inner compassion and delight.

Together with David’s deep listening walks and Rosalind’s writing explorations of place, Nadine’s sessions weave the inner landscape with the outer, helping us reconnect with resilience, creativity, and the healing music of the world around us.