NOT A WRITING WORKSHOP! although we will do a little writing

Encountering the Wild Divine

co-facilitated by Wendy Brown-Baez and Marie Pettingill

Each interactive session includes a brief meditation, reading a short passage followed by Talking Circle, and a ceremonial activity, such as decorating prayer sticks, chanting and drumming, or offering blessings. It will be joyful and grounding, deepening our connection to the Feminine Divine within. All materials provided.

Wild Mercy by Mirabai Starr is highly recommended but not required.

registration for series online www.unityminneapolis.org

or for each individual session at the door

May 4, 11, 18, 25 / 6:30-8:00 PM inperson

at Unity Minneapolis 4000 Golden Valley Rd,

Golden Vally, MN 55421

· May 4: Longing for Union

· May 11: Birth and Death

· May 18: Honoring Mother Earth

· May 25: A Deepening Sense of Community

$100 for series includes all materials

Join me for my annual free Writing for Healing
summer workshops at Silverwood Park
July 15, 22, 29 at 10:00 am - 11:30 am

We'll meet behind the visitor's center at 9:30 AM and at 10:00 AM we will walk over the bridge to the island picnic table. BRING A CAMPING CHAIR or blanket, a water bottle and your favorite notebook. Snacks and drinks are available for purchase in the cafe in the visitor center
Map here:
2500 County Road E West St Anthony, MN

Coming in Fall

In Praise of Wild Spaces: Honoring the wild

in our writing and in ourselves

Sept 19-Oct 24 6:00-8:00 PM CST via Zoom

We will evoke our personal experiences of wild spaces and write about the ways they alter and heal us, whether these spaces are backyard gardens or vast canyonlands. We’ll conjure up moments of beauty and transformation. What does it mean to be interconnected with the uncivilized, untamed, ancient, and whole? How can we honor wildness in ourselves? We will also notice damage and harm, like garbage dumps or the effects of wildfire. We’ll explore texts by writers who exemplify being in relationship with the natural world to guide us in writing about our own, such as excerpts from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s lyrical meditations in Braiding Sweetgrass, humorous reflections on falling in love with your surroundings by Hanif Abdurraqib, and motorcycle adventures by Robert Pirsig. We’ll discuss craft elements of sensual details and pacing to create context for tales of wonder and awe. In Praise of Wild Spaces will be generative, interactive, and reflective as we praise the gifts of natural beauty and define ways we reciprocate. Our goal is to find the entry point through the personal to expand into the universal.

offered through Jeannine Ouellette's Elephant Rock

Writing the Delights: ordinary miracles around and within us

Wisdom Ways Oct 4 & 18 6:30-8:00 PM CST in person and via Zoom

1890 Randolph Ave, St Paul, MN

A Practice of Delight

Unity Minneapolis Nov 1, 8, 15 6:30-8:30 pm CST in-person

4000 Golden Valley Road, Golden Valley, MN

Using the example set by Ross Gay, we will pay attention to what gives us delight: being in nature, encounters with loved ones, people watching, and the joy of our own aliveness. Ross Gay gave himself a year’s challenge to pay attention to and write about one delight each day which became The Book of Delights. Our delights might become poems or prose poems or flash essays. With blessings, odes, and exultations, we’ll affirm that despite whatever is happening in the world, there is still beauty and grace all around us and we’ll delight in the curiosity within us. We’ll generate work in class, work with a prompt between classes, and record the impact of our practice between classes.