To paraphrase author and teacher Natalie Goldberg: In knowing who we are and writing from that knowledge, we have a chance to bring the reader deeper into our own heart. Even when that reader is our self. What’s more, she says, such writing can teach us the dignity of speaking the truth, allowing that truthful dignity to spread out from the page into our life.
Participants will gain skills and experience in process writing which can be employed in discerning and expressing their way well beyond this program/retreat. These skills and experiences may also strengthen their ability to tolerate and even appreciate the circuitous nature of the journey, deepen their trust in Spirit’s abiding, and expand their capacities to discern the ways in which guide posts and Presence are revealed.
They will also gain experience in the value and reciprocal relationship of an empowering and encouraging contemplative writing community. Such a community is dedicated to seeing each other through the challenges of revision, which contemplative writing teacher Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew says, “…is the spiritual practice of transformation—of seeing text, and therefore the world—with new eyes.”
In this program/retreat, participants will use writing as a method of discovery. They’ll explore the elements of their spiritual lives in their own voices, then shape at least some part of that journey into a shareable form. That form might be anything from a poem to a letter to the opening pages of a memoir. The intended audience may be small and chosen or the wider world of fellow seekers. In every case, the focus is on a process that engenders truth-telling and can serve participants as they continue to grow in self-knowledge and the discernment of their spiritual journey.
Each session is designed to explore techniques that expand participants’ agency and ways of knowing as they seek a fuller relationship with the Source of all Being, themselves, and others through writing. The process begins with tapping into the creative flow of questions, feelings, and insights. Practiced in the space of sacred circle, these exercises and courageous conversations about them, help reveal to participants both the form their writing will take and its intended audience. Navigating the circuitous process toward shareable pages, involves revision, and may take writers back into the earlier steps or bring them face-to-face with inner critics. Seeing each other through these challenges and listening intently for the truth in each other’s voices, writers find themselves more deeply connected to each other, and come to understand that their personal journey is part of a much larger community of contemplative writers and seekers throughout time. Sign up today! Follow this link to learn more.
Cheryl Conklin holds a B.A. degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing and a Masters in Counseling. She has collaborated on writing and producing stage plays, published a few poems, given poetry readings, and was a regular contributor to Colorado Gardening magazine. Most recently, she completed the Living School program through the Center for Action and Contemplation, through which she became dedicated to addressing the need for contemplative writing practice and communities.