We are aware of life emerging, changing, and regenerating all around and within us. Our understanding of who “We” are is shifting. Humanity is on the cusp of a new ontology (nature of being) and a spiritual renaissance. Biologically, we are merged more and more with technology, truly becoming cybernetic organisms—”cyborgs.” Some are quite comfortable with the merger, especially those called “digital natives.” What if we were born prior to digital immersion, struggling to connect with those whose lives flourish in the tech milieu? How do we understand our deeper, interior selves, and our evolving relationships? What does spirituality look like in this context? A new “spiritual operating system 2.0” may be required. We are collectively and gradually marking a transition to a “spiritual, but not religious” world. Our pandemic-era religious gatherings have morphed into pixelated squares on a screen, our rituals appearing as two-dimensional images without taste, smell or texture. We are learning to adapt and make meaning in this new context. Maybe our daily meditations come from an email alert. Maybe our rituals are focused on breath and embodied energy, and our prayer is in rhythm with the changing seasons. Expediency in communication—the text—has supplanted most other forms for daily interaction. Can emojis communicate the depths of loss or the vibrancy of life? How does symbol and metaphor in our relanguaging process help us co-create emerging spiritual meaning? And what about our moral compass in this “post-human” era? What if terms like “the common good” escape us, but the topic of AI (artificial intelligence) rights enters our ethical consideration? Join facilitators Ellen Bruckner and Laura A. Weber, Ph.D., at Prairiewoods (120 East Boyson Road in Hiawatha) in going deeper into the mystery of rooted emergence, our journey of interior awareness in today’s complex world. The either-or structure of binary programming may leave us feeling a deep void, and exhausted from being always “on.” We may feel like we are drowning in a sea of zeros and ones, without the grayscale, the nuance of richly varied life experience. It can be felt as an overload to our neurological, emotional and spiritual selves. How might we remain rooted, while our spiritual taproots and mycelial networking systems move through the life cycle of composting and regenerating, garnering nourishment from many new sources? On this weekend odyssey, we will take a first fierce step. Ready to make the leap? This is “one small step” for each of us, and “one giant leap” for all of us, the wider “We.” The cost of this weekend retreat is $230 and includes sessions, lodging and all meals. The commuter fee is $180 and includes sessions, Saturday lunch and dinner, and Sunday lunch.