Upcoming Events
Connecting Mind, Body & Spirit
Events at Rising Fawn Gardens are carefully selected to meet a diverse audience. Each program offers a gift of time to yourself. Join us to learn a new skill, visit the garden, walk a trail, meditate, practice yoga, or rest in the peaceful sound of the babbling creek.
We invite you to come to the woods.
September 17 Community Yoga with Bob Brislin
Description
Join us at the Retreat House at Rising Fawn Gardens for an energetic, afternoon Community Yoga class led by Bob Brislin, certified DDPY instructor. DDPY is a combination of traditional yoga positions, old-school calisthenics, sports rehabilitation therapy principles, and Dynamic Resistance. All levels are welcome, bring your own mat and water bottle.
Itinerary
5:30 PM EST - Class Starts
6:30 PM EST - Class Ends
Tickets
Cost is a gratitude offering on the day for the instructor; please register to attend.
Event Facilitator
Bob Brislin. Bob’s own results, coupled with seeing the amazing transformation videos from Arthur Boorman, Jake Roberts, and countless others, ignited a passion to pursue DDPYoga Certification to safely and correctly share the workouts with others and help them find a way to a healthier lifestyle, especially those that don’t think they can.
Forest Bathing at Rising Fawn Gardens
Description
The Season’s Transition
As the landscape transitions from late summer to early autumn, participants are invited to pause and notice the beauty of change and impermanence. Autumn brings forth the great unmasking—when the lush green chlorophyll fades to reveal hidden fiery reds, bright yellows, and deep oranges, turning living energy into quiet rest.
Join Us
We invite you to join María Gonzalez, an ANFT certified forest bathing guide, for a slow, mindful walk to celebrate the turning to the golden harvest, the fading of the light, and the splendor of colorful pigments decorating the forest floor and canopy.
This isn't a strenuous hike; it’s an invitation to pause. In the October woods, María will guide you through the practice of Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing). Together, we’ll move beyond the rush of daily life, engaging all five senses to connect with the vitality of the world around us.
No hiking experience required, just a willingness to slow down and be present.
Come breathe the forest and reconnect with yourself and the land.
What to bring
You are welcome to bring a water bottle, a camping chair, or a blanket for your comfort sitting outside.
Participants are encouraged to wear a sunhat, comfortable clothes, and shoes for walking. No open toe shoes please.
Your guide is a certified in Wilderness First Aid and will have a first aid kit.
We will be outside on trails for the duration of our time together so participants are encouraged to apply bugspray before our walk and/or to wear long pants and socks for protection from bugs, stings, and thorns.
We love our fur babies but please do not bring pets, thank you.
Complimentary tea and snacks will be provided at the end of our walk.
A follow up email will be sent a few days prior to our walk.
Please note all times are Eastern Standard time.
Tickets
$15 per person
The event includes tea and snacks. All participants will be required to register for this event and to complete a waiver for Rising Fawn Gardens before the walk.
Your Guide
María Gonzalez
Maria completed her Forest Therapy guide training with the Association of Nature Forest Therapy Guides. María’s love of the natural world and her background in cultural and experiential education informs and inspires her guiding practice.
Community Yoga class with Bonnie Cayce
Description
Join us for a community yoga class led by Bonnie Cayce at the Retreat House at Rising Fawn Gardens. Bonnie will lead us in a restorative, mindful, Yin practice from 10-11am, followed by tea on the porch from 11-12pm. All levels are welcome, bring your own mat and water bottle.
Schedule (All times EST)
10:00 - 11:00 AM - Yoga Class
11:00-12:00 PM - Tea Time
Tickets
Cost is $10 or a gratitude offering on the day; please register to attend.
Event Facilitator
Bonnie Z. Cayce has taught yoga for 17 years with certificates in the Yoga Fit method at gyms, churches, schools, and special events and has been a practitioner for over 20 years. She enjoys workshops and has taken several at Rising Fawn Gardens. Her philosophy is Yoga is for everybody. Every Body.
Community Yoga with Mireille Whritenour
Description
Join us for a gentle and balancing November community yoga class led by Mireille Whritenour. Tea time will follow the class. All levels are welcome, bring your own mat and water bottle.
Itinerary
10:00 AM- 11:00 AM EST - Yoga Class
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST - Tea Time
Tickets
Cost is $10 or a gratitude offering on the day, please register to attend.
Event Facilitator
Mireille is a certified (RTY 200) yoga teacher in the Kripalu lineage; she is registered with the Yoga Alliance and has practiced yoga for 16 years and taught for over 7 years. She leads classes in Vinyasa, Yin and Chair yoga which are open to all practitioners’ levels of experience. She emphasizes proper pose alignment and the importance of linking body, heart, mind and spirit in each practice. Mireille lives on Lookout Mountain in Rising Fawn and teaches in Trenton, GA. She is a grateful 8 year cancer survivor.
Coming Home: Body, Earth, and Belonging — A Daylong Meditation Retreat
Description
We live in a time when many of us feel disconnected—from our bodies, from one another, and from the living Earth that sustains us. Through meditation, embodied awareness, and silence, this daylong retreat offers an opportunity to slow down, listen deeply, and remember that we are not separate from the world but intimately woven into it.
Drawing on the Buddhist teachings and the wisdom of the body, we will explore what it means to come home—not as a place we arrive, but as an ongoing practice of inhabiting our lives with greater presence, tenderness, and care. As we settle into the rhythms of breathing, movement, stillness, and the natural world, we begin to rediscover a sense of belonging that is less dependent on circumstances and more rooted in direct experience. Rather than striving to become someone different, this day invites us to soften into the simple intimacy of being alive.
Held primarily in noble silence, the retreat will include alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation, somatic movement, Dharma reflections, and practice instructions. The schedule will also include with a mid-day lunch break to practice mindful eating and a discussion period toward the end of the day to explore how the practice can be integrated into daily life.
Bring your lunch, yoga mat if you have one, and any appropriate props you will need for your sitting meditation practice. Rising Fawn Gardens has chairs, large bolsters and blankets. Wear comfortable clothing and shoes for walking outside.
While the retreat is open to practitioners of all levels, some prior meditation experience is recommended.
Earth, Isn’t This What You Want by Rainer Maria Rilke
Earth, isn’t this what you want? To arise in us, invisible?
Is it not your dream, to enter us so wholly
there’s nothing left outside us to see?
What, if not transformation,
is your deepest purpose? Earth, my love,
I want it too. Believe me,
no more of your springtimes are needed
to win me over—even one flower
is more than enough. Before I was named
I belonged to you. I see no other law
but yours, and know I can trust
the death you will bring.
See, I live. On what?
Childhood and future are equally present.
Sheer abundance of being
floods my heart.
Tickets
$45 per person
Retreat cost: $45 registration fee + Dana* for the teacher
Janka offers two work-study scholarships for those in need. Email Janka to inquire or if you have any questions about the retreat.
*Dana, or generosity, is at the heart of the Buddhist path. In this tradition, the teachings are offered freely rather than through a fixed teaching fee, and teachers rely on the generosity of participants to support their livelihood and the continuation of the Dharma.
Your $45 registration fee covers only the basic costs of hosting the retreat — including the Rising Fawn Gardens rental fee, credit card processing fees, and administrative expenses. Janka does not receive compensation from the registration fee.
Offering these teachings is both her vocation and livelihood. She depends on dana to sustain her ability to continue offering retreats, spiritual guidance, and practice opportunities within the community.
In a culture shaped by consumerism and fixed-price transactions, the practice of dana can feel unfamiliar or uncertain. Rather than thinking of dana as a payment for services, you might approach it as a practice of reciprocity, gratitude, and shared participation in sustaining the teachings.
There will be an opportunity at the end of the retreat to offer dana in whatever way feels sincere and appropriate for your circumstances.
Cancellation Policy: Janka has a no refund policy. If extenuating circumstances prevent you from being present, please contact Janka in advance of the retreat and she will transfer your $45 credit toward any of her future retreats.
Event Facilitator
Janka Livoncova
Janka Livoncova is an Insight Meditation teacher, Certified Life Coach, and Somatic Movement Educator. She has practiced and studied the Dharma for over three decades, beginning in the Soto Zen tradition and, since 2010, studying under her dharma mentors, Kittisaro and Thanissara. She is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders program and Sacred Mountain Sangha’s Dharmapala training. Rooted in a deep love of life and the wisdom of the living world, her teaching weaves together Buddhist wisdom, meditation, somatic movement practice, and deep listening to support a more rooted, awake, and embodied relationship with life.
Community Yoga class with Bonnie Cayce
Description
Join us for a community yoga class led by Bonnie Cayce at the Retreat House at Rising Fawn Gardens. Bonnie will lead us in a restorative, mindful, Yin practice from 10-11am, followed by tea on the porch from 11-12pm. All levels are welcome, bring your own mat and water bottle.
Schedule (All times EST)
10:00 - 11:00 AM - Yoga Class
11:00-12:00 PM - Tea Time
Tickets
Cost is $10 or a gratitude offering on the day, please register to attend.
Event Facilitator
Bonnie Z. Cayce has taught yoga for 17 years with certificates in the Yoga Fit method at gyms, churches, schools, and special events and has been a practitioner for over 20 years. She enjoys workshops and has taken several at Rising Fawn Gardens. Her philosophy is Yoga is for everybody. Every Body.