Welcome to the Center for Awakening Wildness
Events, Retreats, and Opportunities to Engage
For those who seek to transform their lives through their relationship with nature, The Center for Awakening Wildness offers workshops, retreats, speaking engagements, and private coaching.
Reach out with your inquiries for corporate and private events and partnerships: Christy at awakeningwildness@gmail.com.
Fall-Winter 2026
Conversations with the Wild: A Free Online Symposium
There is a world that has never stopped speaking to you. It speaks in the language of watershed and wind, of hawk shadow crossing a sun-warmed field, of mycelium threading the dark beneath our feet. It speaks in the older stories, the ones our bodies still remember even when our minds have forgotten. It has been calling us home for as long as we have been wandering.
This symposium is a response to that call.
Over three days, we gather a rare community of poets, mythologists, ecotherapists, Indigenous knowledge keepers, educators, memoirists, and nature writers — voices who have made it their life's work to listen, to translate, to tend the relationship between human and more-than-human worlds. Together, and with you, we will explore the three qualities that make that relationship not only possible but sustaining: belonging, relationship, and reciprocity.
October 30, 31, and November 1
11:00-1:00 Mountain Time
Register FREE to join live via zoom or watch the recordings.
Hear from legendary figures like David Orr, Drew Dellinger, Page Lambert, Jackie Holder, Jessica Carew Kraft, Chip Blake, Gregory Cajete, and so many others!
Optional graduate credit available through University of Northern Colorado.
Facilitated by Christy McConnell and Mary Reynolds Thompson
Book Signing Pop Up Event at Little Blue Pigeon, Larimer Square
Join me at the Little Blue Pigeon for book signing, conversation, and community. The Little Blue Pigeon is a woman-owned bookstore in the heart of Denver on Larimer Square. Let's share stories of wildness, adventure, and connection.
Saturday, November 7, 2026
11:00-1:00 PM
Little Blue Pigeon
1413 Larimer Street
Denver, CO 80202
NEW Online Workshop: The Gifts of Winter: Four Cozy Evenings of Reflection, Wonder and Writing
As the roots rest beneath frozen ground and the days grow quiet and still, life continues its unseen work. What wisdom can this season of shorter days and chilly nights offer us about our lives? Together over four evenings, we will snuggle in with a warm drink for a candlelit exploration of the gifts of stillness, dormancy, rest, and our desire to seek the light.
Join Christy for an intimate four-week online writing gathering devoted to understanding what this quieter season might be asking of us. Allow yourself the gift of time amidst the hustle of the holidays to nurture your experience of this special season. Offered on four consecutive Tuesdays to a small group of curious writers and seekers.
Online via Zoom
Tuesdays in December: The 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd
7:00-8:30PM Mountain Standard Time
Early Bird Registration until 11.1.26: $199 -- Early Bird Scholarships are available! Click on the registration link for details.
Regular Registration 11.2.26-12.1.26 $225
Limited to 10 participants.
The Experiences that Change Us: Stories of Wildness, Wonder and Belonging
What are the experiences that shape who we become? How do they help us find wonder, authenticity, and belonging in a rapidly changing world? Drawing from Awakening Wildness I will guide an exploration of how our encounters with the natural world can transform our understanding of ourselves, our relationships, and what it means to live intentionally.
Weaving personal stories of adventure, loss, and discovery with research on experience, we will consider how the moments that change our lives can begin with something as simple as paying attention, or as daring as stepping into the unknown.
This interactive presentation invites students, faculty, and community members to rediscover the wildness within and around them.
Wednesday, November 18, 2026
4:00 PM
Van Etten Lacey House
Cornell College, Iowa
National Geographic Grant Award Announcement
Drs. Matthew Clay and Betsy Crawford at Fort Hays State University were recently awarded a grant from the National Geographic Society titled "Where the Wild Things Are." The project is using Awakening Wildness as a framework to encourage a network of special education teachers to embrace their own wildness and then use 360-videos to bring those experiences into the classroom.
Spring-Summer 2027
NEW Partnership: Writing the Wild Within at Hudson Gardens
For writers, journalers, soul seekers, and nature lovers, Writing the Wild Within connects your inner wildness with nature’s offerings. Through learning to listen to our inner voice, as well as to the many languages and ways that nature is speaking to us, we will awaken the raw and untamed messages of our souls. Using writing as a conduit, we will hear the lessons that are meant for us—the ones our souls want us to know.
"This was more powerful and emotional than I was prepared for--in a good way. I really want others to engage in this work. It is beyond special." Summer 2026 Retreat Participant
"I feel like I can finally hear myself think." --Summer 2026 Retreat Participant
100% of 2026 participants highly recommend this retreat.
Announcing a new collaboration with Hudson Gardens! Join me in February for this winter workshop. Registration is now live and through Hudson Gardens.
February 27, 2027
11:00-4:00 PM
Littleton, CO
NEW Partnership: AWE-thentic Retreat, Awakening to Wildness and Ease, Oregon
How do you authentically greet each day? Do you long for deeper connection with yourself, with nature, and with like-minded others?
Join us to find your way home again.
Connect: with nature and with your inner knowing
Reflect: on your soul’s path and how nature can guide you through the mysteries
Rest: and find balance away from your daily responsibilities while remembering who you truly areJ
For four days and three nights, we will gather at this beautiful 50-acre sanctuary perched on the rim of the Crooked River Gorge, 30 miles north of Bend, OR. This “glamping” retreat will offer time to engage our bodies, attend to our breath, and connect with nature and our creative selves. Through yoga, meditation, nature writing, and community stories, we will walk each other back home to ourselves.
June 3-6, 2027
Green Rock Retreat Center
Culver, Oregon
Your Retreat Guides
Erin Collins, MN RN CHPN, E-RYT, Yoga and Meditation Teacher
Christy McConnell, PhD, Authorand Educator
Erin and Christy have the fortune of being cousins first, and kindred spirits who have travelled parallel life paths. They enjoyed many childhood adventures and then reconnected as adults with a shared intention of inspiring women to live with awe, with wildness and with ease.
BOOK EARLY AND SAVE!
Save your spot now by paying your $500 nonrefundable deposit before 12/31/26
Women and The Wild Retreat
Are you living your wildest dreams? Let's find out together.
Through playful introspection, connect with like-minded others, Women and the Wild will help you find new ways to deepen your relationship with nature and yourself. Reawaken your wildness and let it guide you toward your authentic path in life. Join us in Evergreen, Colorado to feed the resident deer, greet the white buffalo, and witness the changing aspen leaves.
"Getting into my heart space was exactly what I needed."
--2026 Retreat Participant
"I wasn't aware I was so out of balance with who I am."
--2026 Retreat Participant
100% of participants say the retreat significantly or profoundly deepened their connection with themselves, their wildness, and the natural world
100% of participants highly recommend this workshop
2027 dates coming soon.
Evergreen, Colorado
Subscribe to Field Notes
Receive Field Notes from Awakening Wildness with reflections, curiosities, and practical guidance.
This website uses cookies.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.