Pine Manor

02/03/2025

I have been INVITED to help lead a retreat - Flourishing as We Age: A Writing Retreat for Women Cultivating Resilience, Navigating Change, and Embracing Life. What's better to focus on amid uncertainty, chaos, and confusion?
Laura Davis, Evelyn Hall, and Karyn Bristol will all bring beautiful gifts as teachers/ guides. I am pleased to join with them to support all participants.
A few years back, I attended a writing retreat with Laura Davis on Grief. Evelyn Hall led reflections and introduced various meditations It was a wonderful experience for me. The retreat provided a safe sanctuary. We were invited to spend time letting down- enjoying meals, going for walks, writing, allowing our grief, and sharing our writing with one another.
I had the privilege of inviting people (some of you reading this now) to retreats at Pine Manor for close to 30 years. I miss that, for sure, but life doesn't end when we go through major changes. It opens us to other ways of seeing and stretches us.
Now I INVITE you to take time for yourself, to join with other women, to follow your own rhythm- to walk on the beach, to write, to rest, to connect with others. Please consider joining us in Santa Cruz, California - May 5-10th, 2025. We need each other!

01/31/2025

Wanted to share this with some who might enjoy what Brooke has to share. I've always known that my children are my teachers! 🥰

Join editor, writer, and publisher Brooke Warner in this live, two-hour class and discover the Five Things She’s Learned about the ways in which our intimate responses to change can positively drive our most powerful urges to write and create.

09/23/2024

The fire consumed so many homes in El Cariso Village and took down the main retreat house, including the wing with the Treehouse at what was Pine Manor.
My daughter, Brooke, has posted regarding this. She also wrote an article on her substack you might have already seen:
https://open.substack.com/pub/brookewarner/p/visiting-the-aftermath-of-a-fire?r=k95gn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

I have so many thoughts and feeling swirling and in time I will share. For now I want to address one part of the story that relates to Margo, our cook and hostess for so many years at Pine Manor. Her warm heart and humor always helped guests feef welcomed. On top of that, she was an amazing cook whose skills grew over the years. She came on board while Sharone (a great mentor) was still cooking. Over the years she adapted to the needs of clients and learned to navigate the various concerns related to food choices and learned to have delicious alternatives for Vegetarian, Vegan , Dairy Free, Sugar Free options.

For me personally, Margo managed a whole bunch of things that allowed me to be available as facility hostess and often as facilitator of various groups. She also brought an energy to the groups that helped hold them no matter what kind of retreat was taking place.

NOW she and Joe and his mother, Janie have no home! I am attaching a GoFundMe link to help them navigate this huge loss. Even staying on the hill is almost impossible with the ashes, no electricity and contaminated water.

I saw that someone donated a RV to another neighbor and it made me wonder if someone might have an RV you have thought of letting go of, one you no longer use, etc. It doesn’t hurt to ask. It also might just be one that is loaned. Also, wondering if there might be property in OC where they could stay until situated more permanently.

DOES SOMEONE HAVE AN RV to give or loan?

It’s a BIG ask in a time of BIG need. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Meanwhile here is the link to GO FUND ME that Margo’s daughter, Chloe set up for them.
https://gofund.me/ba58163a

And for all who have reached out to me personally, I feel the love! I feel the appreciation!
I cherish the memories!

Sending LOVE,
Gail

06/24/2024

Celebrating Brooke's Birthday today!

Brooke,
Thinking of you on this day and remembering that when I was the same age, 48, you were in Spain for a year launching yourself into adulthood. You have always reached for things outside your comfort zone and have discovered so many treasures in doing so! You have accomplished a lot! I am proud of you!
The deepest joy I feel is seeing how you show up for others and yet show up for yourself as well-- You are courageous and compassionate, you are a truth teller and willing to be vulnerable.

Happy Birthday, sweetheart!

Love,
Mom

05/12/2024

One more post on Mother's Day!

I am so grateful for the amazing journey of being a mother to Brooke and to Brent. Both of you have gifted me with your own magical and unique essence. We have shared so many moments of love and laughter. We have learned about the challenges of being human over many years. I continue to learn from each of you year by year!!

Thank you!

I love you, both!

Your Mama

05/12/2024

One way of mothering that will bring transformation
Is learning to mother your own hurt, frightened and abandoned parts of self.
The child parts that suffered can be loved by YOU!

Gift yourself this Mother's Day with love toward you.

05/12/2024

May you see the joys and the challenges of being a mother.
May each person appreciate their own gifts of mothering.
Having children is not the only thing that makes one a mother.
The concern of mothering can be toward humans in crisis.
The tenderness of mothering can be toward dear animals.
Tne generosity of mothering can be given to those who struggle



May we understand more about the cycles of mothering.
We are mothered from the start or sometimes not.
If we were not mothered well, that loss leaves a hunger
If we can allow the hunger,
we might find those who mother us in various ways.

05/12/2024

Mother’s Day brings delight and celebration. It sometimes brings loneliness and disappointment. Relationship with one’s mother is filled with a collage of experiences, expectations, encounters, exchanges. So many beautiful relationships are honored and also lack of relationship- avoidance, absence, loss can be overwhelming.

Most of my life I didn’t see a Divine Mother, only a Divine Father. A Divine Mother who tends us? Who knew?
Obviously many people did know over centuries of time. Now I receive comfort and nurturing, but also see her as a teacher, revealing the perspective of compassion blended with the fierce energy of love is so needed in the world.

06/03/2023

Want to step away for a time of renewal in the company of other women? House of Memories (new ownership of Pine Manor) is hosting a Women's Retreat on June 10th with option to stay over night for extra time on June 11th.

(If you live in south OC, please note that the Ortega has a last minute closure on that weekend...so access House of Memories via Lake Elsinore). Travel from LA, Riverside and San Diego counties will be clear.

Give yourself the gift of becoming your next level “Her” on your life‘s highest and most powerful loving path at this women's retreat.

03/11/2023

Sigmund Freud once famously said, “The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is ‘What does a woman want?’ ”

I don’t propose to know the answer, but I do know that women’s hearts are full of longings. Today on International Women’s Day, it seems like a good moment to shine a light on the question of what women want and try my hand at postulating a few personal answers. May I suggest….

Woman want equity. It’s a few millennia overdue.

Women want to be the authors of our own lives. We are tired of being given bad scrips to live by.

Women want empathy to be an indispensable ethic and for the wisdom of the heart to be practiced within institutions of power.

Women want our voices to be heard, to matter, to make seismic cracks in glass ceilings and other invisible barriers.

Women want to ‘riot’ with a pen, a paintbrush, a needle, a camera, a keyboard, a garden, a humanitarian effort, or one of a thousand other passions.

Women want to do brave things, even when we’re afraid.

Women want the world to throw out a welcome mat and say, “You know this grand mess I’m in? It’s not going to get cleaned up without the massive involvement and genius of women.”

Women want the right to rest, be vulnerable, weep, rail, feel what we feel, ask for help, play, dream, and love ourselves fiercely.

Women want to be loved and women want to be free. And by god, we want them at the same time.

The list could go on and on. What do women want? There are as many answers as there are women. As we celebrate women today, let’s acknowledge what lies in the collective female heart and deep inside our own.

03/23/2022

Want to share with all of you on FaceBook what I recently sent out in our Newsletter. I am grateful for so much support- my wonderful family and the wider Pine Manor Community of friends.

Facing the Unknown-- The Sale of Pine Manor

Dear Friends of Pine Manor,

Some of you know by word of mouth, and many do not know, that I am in the process of selling Pine Manor. It is time to turn this sacred space over to others. Pine Manor has provided a healing community in the form of retreats, training, volunteering, work trade, and home for so many people. Facing this transition, I feel a swirl of grief and some relief, but mostly I feel gratitude for this amazing journey of over 26 years together with many of you.

When I purchased Pine Manor, the sign said “Descanso, Land of Endless Opportunity.” Little did I know the opportunities that would unfold.

Some thought it was a foolish idea, but I held onto words from a quote by Rumi: “Don’t go where Fear takes you, start a Foolish project, Noah did!” Those words touched me and continued to encourage me. And so I didn’t go where fear wanted to take me, I started a foolish project, eventually named Pine Manor.

There are so many Pine Manor stories, and I have actually started recording them. I'm including a favorite slide show with photos from over the years. Hopefully, I will be able to share more Pine Manor stories over the next year or so.

I have been talking with individuals who know of the sale by word of mouth and I'm now ready to list the property within the next few weeks.

There are two upcoming retreats scheduled and I am hoping to be able to hold a Celebrating Community @ Pine Manor sometime in June to honor Pine Manor and to say goodbye. I will keep you posted as soon as I have more details.

Words cannot express how much appreciation I feel for what WE (and that includes so MANY of YOU in the wider Pine Manor Community) have created over the years. I trust that somehow the work for good that has taken place here will find a way to continue on this land.

Love,

Gail

03/01/2022

We are thrilled to announce that we're bringing Mark Nepo back to Pine Manor for an in-person retreat the weekend of April 8-10. We can't think of more helpful topics—pain, grief, and fear—to explore during these turbulent times, and we invite you to come experience these deeper teachers with this master teacher and favorite of Pine Manor. More details at: https://pinemanor.com/retreats/mark-nepo/

07/28/2021

Remembering the joy of Kid's Camp!! 🥰

04/23/2021

Gail Warner is invited to share poetry with the National Association of Memoir Writers group tomorrow- April 23rd @ 11 am PDT.
So honored to be with Linda Joy Meyers, who has facilitated classes with my daughter, Brooke Warner for years.
Click through link below if you'd like to join us. Free event for our followers.

Gail Warner Poetry, Memoir, and Voice April 23, 20201 11 AM PDT | 12 PM MDT | 1 PM CDT | 2 PM EDT We’re celebrating April Poetry Month at the National Association of Memoir Writers–on Zoom—with our guest is Gail Warner, poet, healer, and retreat leader in southern California. Many of us come f...

12/26/2020

Grateful this holiday season for all of you who have been a part of Pine Manor. Even in the midst of being closed down, we are painting the earthen buildings with lovely new CLAY paint. So fun to have this going on thanks to our work trade crew!! ❤