Make Life’s Big Moments Matter: Reclaiming Meaning in a Disconnected World
Bruce Feiler
7x New York Times bestselling author
Chip Conley
MEA Founder, Hotelier + Hospitality Entrepreneur, Bestselling Author
Kari Cardinale
MEA Chief Content Officer
Learn from one of the world’s foremost transition experts on how to honor and share the moments that make life meaningful
Something is happening to the way we experience our lives – and it's leaving a lot of us feeling more disconnected, more adrift, and vaguely aware that something important is missing.
What's missing, it turns out, is something humans have relied on for millennia: ceremonies that gather our communities around life's big transitions, mark our significant shifts, and remind us that we aren't moving through them alone.
Think about the transitions that define midlife, and how few of them have any real ceremony attached to them. Retirement arrives and is marked, at best, by a card and a cake. Children leave home and the empty nest settles in without any real acknowledgment of what just ended, or what might begin.
Careers shift, relationships evolve, identities transform. The transitions keep coming, and we keep navigating them alone – without ceremony, without community, and without any real framework for how to honor them.
The desire to mark these moments is still there. What’s missing is the how.
You can see it everywhere. Younger generations are inventing new ceremonies all the time – gender reveal parties, "baby moons," progressive weddings designed to celebrate with different communities over time. They’re even getting tattoos to mark their most meaningful life changes.
The instinct to gather around what matters is as strong as ever. What most people lack is a framework for doing it intentionally – for knowing which moments deserve to be marked, how to create something meaningful around them, and how to bring others into it without it feeling forced or performative.
The moments you don't acknowledge have a way of becoming the ones you most regret.
Maybe not immediately. But years later, when you look back on a chapter of your life and realize you were so busy getting through it that you never actually stopped to feel it.
The retirement you didn't celebrate. The last child who left home without any real send-off. The parent you lost before you ever had the conversation you kept meaning to have. The friendships that drifted without anyone marking the distance.
Those are the moments that stay with you. And they're not just personal oversights — they're what happens when an entire culture stops teaching people how to gather around what matters. There's no going back to do them differently.
The good news is, the shared rituals disappearing from our culture don't need to be resurrected from the past.
They can be reinvented for the lives we're actually living now.
That's exactly what Bruce Feiler spent the last three years trying to understand. As the author of seven consecutive New York Times bestsellers and one of the world's most respected authorities on transitions – he coined the term "lifequake" and has spent decades studying how we navigate life's big changes – Bruce wanted to know what happens when the shared ceremonies that once marked those transitions disappear, and whether anything was rising to take their place.
To find out, he traveled 50,000 miles across sixteen countries on six continents, witnessing life ceremonies that ranged from mass baptisms at the Vatican, to tribal coming-of-age rituals in South Africa, to intimate grief circles in Brooklyn.
He interviewed hundreds of people who are actively reinventing the way we mark life's most significant moments – not by looking backward, but by designing something new. His forthcoming book, A Time to Gather, is the result of that journey – and it arrives with a clear and practical conclusion: the ability to create meaningful shared experiences around life's transitions is a skill that anyone can learn.Now, for the first time anywhere, Bruce is bringing that research into a live workshop setting.
Joined by MEA founder Chip Conley and Chief Content Officer Kari Cardinale, he's coming to Santa Fe to share what he found – and to help a small group of people put it to work in their own lives, so they can navigate transitions with greater clarity, intention, and the support of others.
Imagine moving through your next big life change with a genuine sense of presence and significance. Knowing how to pause, acknowledge what's happening, and bring the people around you into it with you. Not just surviving the moment, but actually inhabiting it – together.
When you develop that capacity, something shifts in how your life feels from the inside. The transitions that once passed in a fog feel acknowledged and complete. The people in your life feel genuinely gathered rather than simply present. And the story of your life feels like something you're actively shaping rather than something that's simply happening to you.
And now you can do this powerful work with Bruce in person at Rising Circle Ranch in Santa Fe.
Listen to Chip and Bruce Feiler on the Midlife Chrysalis podcast:
How to Rewrite Your Story After a Life Quake with Bruce Feiler
Learn to navigate life's biggest transitions with intention – and bring the people around you into them.
During your four days with Bruce, Chip, and Kari in the New Mexico high desert, you will…
Develop practical tools for marking and honoring your most significant moments – designed for the nonlinear, complex lives we're actually living today
Learn how to create meaningful shared experiences around life's transitions – without needing them to be perfect or elaborate
Discover how to bring others into your most meaningful moments – and why the communal dimension of life's transitions is the piece most people are missing
Rewrite the story you tell about your life's biggest chapters – including the ones that passed before you were ready for them, and the ones still ahead of you
Leave with a concrete plan for at least one meaningful gathering – designed around a transition or moment in your own life that deserves to be acknowledged and honored
Connect with like-minded people who are asking the same questions – in MEA's signature intimate setting, where the conversations that happen outside the classroom are often as transformative as the ones inside it
This Workshop
Is For You If…
Meet Your Faculty
Bruce Feiler
7x New York Times Bestselling Author | TED Speaker | Stanford Fellow
Bruce Feiler has been one of the most influential thought leaders in MEA's community since the Academy's earliest days – and now, for the first time, he's coming to Rising Circle Ranch to teach in person.
As the author of New York Times bestsellers such as Life Is in the Transitions and The Secrets of Happy Families, Bruce has spent decades doing the kind of original, firsthand research that most writers only dream about. He has interviewed thousands of people across all fifty states about their biggest life changes, and built the frameworks that have helped millions of people navigate transitions with greater clarity and purpose.
His research for his upcoming book, A Time to Gather, revealed something that sits at the heart of this workshop: at life's most significant transitions – the joyful ones like weddings, baby showers, and coming-of-age milestones, and the harder ones like funerals, divorces, and retirements – we have a profound human need to gather together and mark them in meaningful ways.
This workshop is where he'll be sharing what he found and teaching his work around successfully navigating life’s transitions for the very first time.
Chip Conley
MEA Co-Founder | Author of Learning to Love Midlife | 3x TED Speaker
A three-time TED speaker, Chip Conley is one of the world's leading experts at the intersection of business innovation, psychology, and spirituality. As one of the creators of the boutique hotel movement and the "modern elder" to the young Airbnb founders, Chip has spent decades disrupting conventional thinking about entrepreneurship, leadership, and what it means to age well.
Inspired by his experience of intergenerational mentoring at Airbnb – where his guidance was instrumental to the company's extraordinary success – Chip founded Modern Elder Academy and has since dedicated his midlife years to reframing aging and helping people navigate life's second half with renewed purpose and possibility. But perhaps his most enduring contribution has been the community he's built around that mission. Through MEA, Chip has created one of the most vibrant midlife communities in the world – a global network of people committed to growing wiser, not just older, and to doing it together.
As your host and co-facilitator at Rising Circle Ranch, Chip brings that same gift for connection and community-building to every workshop he leads – creating the conditions for the kind of honest, life-changing conversations that participants carry with them long after they leave the high desert.
Kari Cardinale
MEA Chief Content Officer | Pioneer Facilitator | Social Entrepreneur
Kari Cardinale brings nearly three decades of experience as a pioneer facilitator and social entrepreneur to her role at MEA. With a rare gift for creating meaningful connections – both in person and virtually – she has spent her career mastering the art of bringing wisdom to life through community building, thoughtful conversation, and inspired curriculum design.
Her deep expertise in the longevity industry has led her to collaborate with hundreds of thought leaders worldwide, produce global summits on aging innovation and caregiving, and develop MEA's online programs, which have served thousands of people across the globe. A former Huffington Post contributor and featured guest on Dateline NBC and PBS' This Emotional Life, Kari is also a contributor to the #1 Amazon bestselling anthology Embracing Your Authentic Self.
Our Agenda at a Glance
Sunday:
4:00 PM: Check-in/Welcome
5:30 PM: Welcome Reception & Dinner
7:00 PM: Orientation Session
Monday:
7:00 AM: Mind + Body
8:30 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Classroom Time
1:15 PM: Lunch
2:00 PM: Free Time
3:00 PM: Classroom Time
5:30 PM: Free Time
6:30 PM: Dinner
8:00 PM: Evening Gathering
Tuesday:
7:00 AM: Mind + Body
8:30 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Classroom Time
1:15 PM: Lunch
2:00 PM: Free Time
3:00 PM: Classroom Time
5:30 PM: Free Time
6:30 PM: Dinner
8:00 PM: Evening Gathering
Wednesday:
7:00 AM: Mind + Body
8:30 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Classroom Time
1:15 PM: Lunch
2:00 PM: Free Time
3:00 PM: Classroom Time
5:30 PM: Graduation
6:00 PM: Celebration Dinner
Thursday:
7:00 AM: Breakfast
9:00 AM: Checkout/Departure
Friday:
Saturday:
*Please note all times are estimates and not all “classroom activities” take place in the actual classroom. This agenda is meant to give you an idea of the general flow of activities.
Step into transformation in the high desert
Rising Circle Ranch | Santa Fe, USA.
Our spectacular Santa Fe campus is located on an upscale regenerative ranch featuring traditional Pueblo architecture and nearly 2,600 acres of wildlife, hiking trails in the arroyo, and awe-inspiring beauty. Close to historic Santa Fe, an artisan’s mecca.
PLUS: Gourmet from-scratch meals, snacks, and drinks featuring locally sourced ingredients, made by our in-house chefs
Explore the ranch
on horseback
Our Rising Circle Ranch spans 2,600 acres of New Mexico high desert, offering guided horseback riding for all experience levels through diverse terrains under the vast Southwest sky
You’ll experience highlights like:
Horseback riding is an optional add-on activity you can book once you arrive on the ranch. Whether you’re seasoned or brand new to horseback adventures, this guided experience lets you discover the ranch’s natural wonders alongside our gentle horses.
Your Workshop Also Includes:
The next significant moment in your life is closer than you think. You get to decide how it lands.
Life doesn't stop delivering transitions, milestones, and moments worth marking. And the shared structures that once helped us navigate them aren't coming back on their own. What changes is whether you have the tools, the frameworks, and the community to meet them differently than you have before.
In four days at MEA's Rising Circle Ranch, you'll leave with:
The rituals that once marked our most important moments didn't disappear because they stopped mattering. They disappeared because no one taught us how to reinvent them. That's exactly what this workshop is for.
Book your spot today
Make Life’s Big Moments Matter: Reclaiming Meaning in a Disconnected World
The program was spectacular. It really surpassed my expectations. I was really surprised about how the course was curated. There was such a warm intensity and personal touch to it.
I experienced MEA as a newly diagnosed multiple myeloma cancer patient, and as a result of the things I’ve learned - I’ve banished the anxiety of being a cancer victim, am in remission, and living with a newfound energy and purpose.
Just know how grateful I am for the joy fuel you all put in my rocket ship. When I want to feel loved or just need a good smile I can think of my time at MEA, which came at the perfect time to encourage me on my journey. Thank you!
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is this workshop for?
This workshop is for anyone who has moved through major life transitions – retirement, empty nest, loss, reinvention, relationship changes – and has a sense that those moments deserved more than they got. It’s also for people who have significant transitions ahead of them and want to meet them with greater intention and presence.
Do I need to be going through a major transition right now to benefit?
Not at all. Some participants will arrive in the middle of a significant life change; others will come with a sense that past transitions feel unresolved or under-experienced. Both are equally valid entry points. Bruce’s frameworks apply across all stages and circumstances.
Is this workshop based on Bruce Feiler's new book?
Yes – the workshop draws primarily on A Time to Gather, Bruce’s forthcoming exploration of how meaningful shared experiences hold us together in times of change, as well as his earlier work on navigating life transitions from Life Is in the Transitions. You don’t need to have read either book to benefit fully from the experience.
Is this a grief workshop or a therapy workshop?
No. While the workshop addresses loss as one of life’s significant transitions, it is not a grief program or a therapeutic experience. It is a practical, research-based workshop focused on building the skills to more fully experience and honor all of life’s significant moments – the celebratory ones as much as the difficult ones.
Do I need to come with a specific moment or transition in mind?
No, not at all. Part of the workshop experience is helping you identify the transitions and moments in your own life that deserve more acknowledgment – you may arrive thinking you know what those are and discover something unexpected in the process.
What makes this different from other personal growth workshops?
Most personal growth work focuses on the internal – finding purpose, gaining insight, developing self-awareness. This workshop focuses on something different: how you actually experience your life, especially in the moments that matter most, and how you bring others into those moments with you. It’s less about reflection and more about action.
What's included in the tuition?
Your tuition covers four days of immersive workshop sessions with Bruce Feiler, Chip Conley, and Kari Cardinale, four nights of accommodations at MEA’s Rising Circle Ranch in Santa Fe, all chef-prepared meals, snacks, and drinks, and access to all workshop materials. The only additional costs are travel to Santa Fe and any personal incidentals.Your tuition covers four days of immersive workshop sessions with Bruce Feiler, Chip Conley, and Kari Cardinale, four nights of accommodations at MEA’s Rising Circle Ranch in Santa Fe, all chef-prepared meals, snacks, and drinks, and access to all workshop materials. The only additional costs are travel to Santa Fe and any personal incidentals.
How do I know if I qualify for financial aid?
MEA offers financial assistance on a needs-aware basis. If cost is a barrier to your participation, we encourage you to apply. Our goal is to make this experience accessible to everyone who needs it.
What if I'm not sure this workshop is right for me?
Book a free call with one of our advisors – all of whom are MEA alumni who have lived this experience firsthand. They can help you figure out whether this is the right fit for where you are right now.
Still deciding or have questions?
Connect with our helpful team of Advisors
Our Advisors are all MEA alumni who can offer genuine insights into our programs. They’re passionate about helping you finding the right fit to make your next chapter the best one.
Daniel Booz
Lucas Erie
Leslie Bartlett