Writing Into Winter

Join us after the winter solstice and in the new year to explore the gifts of winter in this Zoom mini-retreat session where we will explore writing in alignment with the turning of the seasons. The equinoxes, solstices, and Celtic cross-quarter days are all threshold moments and portals to a new season of life. We are invited to listen to the new invitations being offered by the earth’s turning.

Winter is a time of hibernating, dreaming, incubating, and yielding to the mystery of things. It is a time to slow way down and trust in the seeds deep beneath the surface. It is a season of profound rest so we can be renewed for what is to come. This fallow time is an essential part of the creative process and we will explore what winter is inviting each of us to consider more deeply.

Christine will guide you through different intuitive exercises to help you access writing as a process of discovery and honoring of your inner wisdom. In this way we can approach our writing practice in an organic way, not “forcing or holding back” as the poet Rilke once wrote but allowing what wants to emerge in the moment. She will share many examples of poems that explore winter themes as inspiration for our own writing. Along the way we will discover how our intuition and dreams might reveal a new way into creative practice that has less to do with goal-setting and visioning and more about allowing the unfolding within us and receiving the gifts that arrive.

We will engage in both free writing and poetry writing and all are welcome regardless of level of experience or preferred genre. This is a generative workshop, we are not here to edit our work, but to show up for the Creative Source when we slow down and listen to what is erupting in the silence. You will be invited to set aside your planning mind and enter into the playfulness of the creative heart, letting your writing guide you on a journey of discovery.

In addition to the writing exercises Christine will guide us in the contemplative practice of lectio divina, silence, reading of poems, song, gentle movement invitations to shift your energy and focus, and an optional chance to share a piece your writing in small groups in a contemplative and structured way as well as a few invitations to read aloud to all gathered if you feel inspired (always optional).  These contemplative and creative practices help to stir the soul’s imagery and open us to be surprised by the holy movements within.

The retreat will be recorded for those who register.