Writing in Response to Our Times- Event

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Writing in Response to Our Times

with Sarah Zale and Gina Marie Mammano

May 20, 1-4 pm

Cost: $60. 

Has the aftermath of the election affected you personally? Are you feeling the need to wrestle and rumble with your thoughts and emotions—as well as connect with others in reflective and transformative ways? In this writing workshop, you will explore your stories and feelings with two facilitators from eclectic backgrounds: poetry, Compassionate Listening ®, social justice theatre, meditation, and spiritual leadership. Participants will be invited to share their writing on a voluntary basis in a supportive environment; no experience is necessary. All writing styles welcome. 

 

Gina Marie Mammano: Inspired by the ancient spiritual practices of lectio divina and walking meditation, Gina’s book Camino Divina: Walking the Divine Way helps readers explore whole new worlds inside themselves. Gina is an award winning poet whose work has been published in journals and magazines such as the Dos Passos Review, Poetica, Pilgrimage Journal, Bearings, and Crucible. Her training as a spiritual director, work as a retreat leader, and experiences gleaned from the Opening the Book of Nature program have allowed her the ability to create interactive and intuitive listening exercises both in the interior and exterior landscapes.

 

Sarah Zale teaches poetry and writing, social justice, and intercultural competence in Seattle. A certified facilitator of Compassionate Listening ® and facilitator of Theatre of the Oppressed and Playback, she brings the skills of deep listening and interactive theatre to her students. Sarah is a passionate believer in the power of poetry and the arts to transform and heal ourselves and the world. She has published two collections of poetry: The Art of Folding (2010), which was inspired by her travels to Israel and Palestine, and Sometimes You Do Things (2013, Aquarius Press, Living Detroit Series) which highlights the history of Detroit and celebrates its rebuilding.

Sign up here!

http://writersworkshoppe.com/workshops/intensives

“Dare to love yourself”

During the “Spring Soul Bath” I co-lead recently, I read this haiku by Aberjhani: “Dare to love yourself/ as if you were a rainbow/ with gold at both ends.” We had just bathed ourselves with the resonance of Tibetan bowls and the sun-yellow images of forsythia and daffodils, when the words of this profound truth struck the group following the striking of the tingshaw bells. What does it look like to be a rainbow with gold at both ends? What do you look like spun with color and light, a bow of promise in the world, holding a bucket of brightness and value in both of your hands? What would it look like if you loved yourself this way whenever the light struck the prism of your awareness?

“My soul and the great World are one.”

The wishes of the soul are springing,
The deeds of the will are thriving,
The fruits of life are maturing.

I feel my fate,
My fate finds me.
I feel my star,
My star finds me.
I feel my goals in life,
My goals in life are finding me.

My soul and the great World are one.

Life grows more radiant about me,
Life grows more arduous for me,
Grows more abundant within me.

-Rudolf Steiner

I lead a group of teachers a few weeks ago through a Camino Divina exercise in a lush, wet landscape at the Whidbey Institute. The air was thick with rain. When I asked pairs of folks to share with one another a line that struck them during a thrice-fold reading of the quote above, so many chose the lines “I feel my fate, My fate finds me.” Myself included. Growing up, I imagined Fate a large obsidian presence, towering over me- a block of sharp, dark importance that I couldn’t see my way through or around to get past it. Many of us realized during our conversations and our walk in the woods that day that fate may be more of a calling, a pulling towards a deep-born longing of contribution to the world, a Friend. When Fate and I find each other, though, I think I’ll ask her to trade in her “e” for an “I” and a “t”, and I’ll call her “Faith” instead. That way, when I meet her on the trail, that large obsidian presence will be formed- instead, of light.

(beautiful artwork by Andy Kehoe)