Workshops
Content, schedules and registration options . . .
Please join me for quiet time at The Studio. Every Wednesday from noon to 2:00 p.m. The Studio is open to anyone for a respite from your busy week. Bring a book, a journal, photos and an album, scrapbook materials, knitting, whatever your heart desires! You can read or write, rest or walk the labyrinth. Sit near the fireplace if it's cold or on the roof deck if it's warm outside. Have a cup of tea or coffee, and refresh yourself.
Open Studio is held EVERY Wednesday throughout the year. Please see the Studio section of the website for directions.
This is a wonderful way to indulge yourself and to make a commitment to explore your personal creativity (no, you DON'T have to be an "artist" to explore your creative muse). We will follow the format for Julia Cameron's book of the same title to discover and recover our creative selves.
The Artist's Way group is a call to inquire, to clear out closets of inhibition, which hinder paths of possibility. It is a call to dream of future creative action and to plan the steps in order to begin.
It is challenging, supportive and really fun. “Life changing!” is the most common response of the participants. That can sound frightening to some, but I’ve seen it over and over for more than a decade. We need your commitment for the entire length of the course. However, if you need to miss a week or two, the work can be done fairly easily even while you are gone.
Come join us for a very special adventure. $50 deposit holds your space, with the balance due the first week of class. If you need to make a payment arrangement, speak to me about this. (Remember, limit is six participants, so send your deposit in early.)
Cost: 350.00This is not a workshop, but rather an invitation to everyone. Walking the labyrinth (see the "Labyrinth" section of the website) is a peaceful, meditative activity, day or night.
Full Moon labyrinth walking is an amazing experience, and I welcome anyone who wants to join me in this activity. There may be two people or twenty, and no matter what, you will have an especially illuminating walk under the moonlight. And remember. . . if the our view of the sky is covered with clouds, the full moon is still there, watching us, snuggled under her night-sky blanket.
Dates are March 29, 7:00 p.m., April 28, 8:00 p.m., May 27, 8:00 p.m., and perhaps we'll do one last walk for the Solstice, June 21, 8:00 p.m., but more on that one.
NOTE: The labyrinth will close after mid-June unless the next owners of Blue Heron House allow it to stay open to the public. So take your opportunities over the next three Full Moon events, beginning March 29.
Writing Personal Memoir and Family History.
Looking at our lives and the lives of our families, of origin and of choice, can be as diverse and enriching as standing in a field of wildflowers. Each flower or weed has its own distinct color and shape, some more beautiful than others, some just plain weeds. But together, both flower and weed compose an enriching vision of life and growth.
We can gather a handful of wildflowers to put in a vase, or a notebook full of experiences to represent our lives. Whether you are young or old, happy or sad, rich or poor, you have memories and dreams, which are worth preserving. Examining our own experiences and those of our family and friends can result in written vignettes which can then either be passed down to our children or held in the privacy of our journals as part of our own healing story.
Join us at play in the field of wildflowers . . . you do not have to be an experienced writer. This is not a critiqued course.
Workshop cost includes materials and lunch.
Begin or expand your journal-keeping experience for memory-gathering, personal growth, health and wellness, creative expression and career enhancement.
In this class, we will use a variety of journaling techniques to add new life and perspective to the journaling experience. You will learn a “Dirty Dozen” ways of writing in your journal, including: Captured Moments, Character Sketches, Clustering, Dialogues, and Dream Log, among others. You CAN write spontaneously (with joy, not judgment!) and begin or continue to regard your journal as a trusted, valued friend.
This course is for anyone who wants to honor the exploration of a life. If you have already taken JTTS in the past, I encourage you to refresh your skills. Course fee includes the book and a workbook to help you get the most out of your “Dirty Dozen” writing practice and the course has been expanded to include an extra three hours of class time.
Cost: 175.00
This course offers you an opportunity to examine and write your personal values, beliefs, life turning points and perhaps words of wisdom, creating a written record for the people who are most important in your lives. Writing what is often referred to as an ethical will can be as important as any material possession, but is often forgotten or put aside while we consult with our legal advisors when putting our finances and health care wishes in order.
We will reflect on our individual life experiences, learning to put into writing what we have found to be most valuable to us. Through this process, you will create a personal document in your own words and form, a legacy you can leave for your children, grandchildren or other family and friends.
Co-Facilitators: Joannah Merriman, M.A. and guest Steve Martin, C.F.P., MBA.
Steve Martin, CFP®, RLP®, MBA is the founding principal of "A Richer Life" Financial Planning - a Fee-Only ® Financial Life Planning Firm. Steve founded "A Richer Life" on the belief that people should use
their money to create a fulfilling life – rather than using their life
just to create money.
He lives and works in Fort Collins, CO.
$125 for the 4-week course, including materials.
$95 ($30 discount) for registrations before February 12,2010.
Cost: 95.00See the LifeprintsJourneys page for more details. Retreats in the Colorado Rockies and the Vermont Green Mountains as well as women's trips to Italy and France.
If you have always wanted to travel, love to be with like-minded people, and want to join us for a week or two or three (depending on our destination), please ask for more info or send an e-mail to us.
The cost in this space says $0.00, but of course it is variable, depending on the trip!
A gathering of women and wisdom. Mythological tradition honors woman in three phases of life: The Maiden, The Mother, and The Crone. In this Luna group, we will meet monthly to share our spirit wisdom through a variety of activities such as mythological stories, poetry, meditation, color, writing, music, and of course, walking the labyrinth.
We will use these elements, among others, as guides for our group, and shape our spirit path together. We will each use a journal called Color of Woman (included in the fee), to record our wise thoughts and observations. As a group, we will choose from topics such as Keeper of the Meaning, Finding Crone Voice/Elder Stateswoman (courage), Health, Sexuality and Aging, Loss, Regeneration vs. Stagnation, and as always, Money, and other conversations the group might find important. Women 50 years old and older are welcome to attend!
Ever wonder why you do some of the things you do? Ever say, "There's a part of me that wants . . . " or "There's a part of me that won't let me . . . "? Those "parts" are very real, functioning pieces of us, our subpersonalities. No, that doesn't make us schizophrenic. We're supposed to have subpersonalities! They work at cross purposes sometimes, and some of them are so hidden they can only make themselves known by their disruption.
Discovering our subpersonalities is an illuminating activity, and it can be fun as well! We'll meet to begin to identify these subs, explore them, draw our "Subpersonality Mandala" and begin to get to know our selves in a new and different light.
This is an excellent way to get more out of your journal writing, and the exploration of your creative path. Get acquainted in good company. Workshop limited to eight participants.
Course fee includes worksheets and lunch!
Cost: 95.00You are in good company. And if you don't know where to start, or how to gather the discipline to continue, you are also in good company.
This new one-day workshop will give you an opportunity to try a variety of writing styles and formats, with the guidance of an experienced writer and teacher. You can play with an idea or two, experimenting with a bit of fiction, creative non-fiction, fantasy or even poem-making, to see how some of your long-held or newly-formed writing ideas work in several of forms.
We'll talk about what feels good, where the awkward parts are, and you will leave at the end of the day with experience, tools and the confidence to allow yourself to write, even if you don't know exactly where the path will lead.
This is for writers of all levels, and our small group will be a safe place to go wild with words. The only way to discover the writer in you is to begin!
Cost: 75.00
For Artist’s Way graduates only. We know what Morning Pages and Artist’s Dates can do. We’ve seen what our Artist’s Way exploration can offer us as possibility. Walking In This World is a call to action, to movement, to putting those inquiries, dreams, plans into shape.
Julie Cameron continues to encourage us to use the Artist’s Way tools, while adding a weekly walk and a mirror in which to reflect our dreams and plans and tell ourselves, “Now . . . now is the time to begin (or continue) a steady walk along my creative path.” We will use her text as well as other writing tools, and we will see our progress IN WRITING, in journals we will create.
Cost: 300.00Some of you have experienced Proprioceptive Writing in one workshop or another, but have gotten only a taste . . . perhaps one Write.
Proprioceptive Writing is a powerful process by which your reflective writing is guided in an unusual way. Using the spiral paths of baroque music and the presence of a Proprioceptive question, this method teaches us to examine the words we use and clarify our thoughts on paper. Developed over thirty years ago by Linda Trichter-Metcalf and Tobin Simon, the PW practice can increase your opportunities for insightful problem-solving in your journal, and decrease the tendency to hide in the casual word usage of flow writing.
Those of you who have taken this course know that each PW experience builds on the one before it. Your repeat participation is encouraged. You can take any one or more or all of these scheduled weekend workshops without feeling out of step with the other participants.
Cost: 175.00For anyone who has not taken a journal class from me, or who just wants a bit of an inspiration experience . . . this two-1/2 hour class will include five short writing exercises, with instruction on ways to expand them in your journal.
NO NEED FOR ANY WRITING EXPERIENCE. This is not a test, nor is it an English Class.! As usual, it is an experiential session (that means bring a journal and a favorite pen!) and is limited to six participants.
Please register on this site.