Courses
My heart and mind work in harmony when I spend time in Nature observing, grounding, and making time for stillness. ​
This is what I hope for others and why I am inspired to create engaging courses and retreats where we can come together and share our gifts.
In Partnership with Olympic Mountain EarthWisdom Circle
Remembering Our Place in the Sacred Circle of Life
6-Zoom Meetings
Fall 2024 - Sept. & Oct.
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Christina introduces myriad ways that a daily writing practice can deepen our conscious engagement with the intelligence of nature. During our weekly gatherings, we found inspiration in prose and poetry, music and paintings by fellow nature loving creatives. We, also, participated in meditative visualizations that provided material for in-class writing. Between classes, we were given materials to read, prompts for writing and encouragement to do small ceremonies to acknowledge our nature relatives every day. Over the course of six weeks, we experienced how writing (or any other creative act) becomes an integral part of our spiritual path when done in dialogue with nature beings. –P.C.Turczyn
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During six, 2-hour workshop sessions, we will read poetry, prose, and essays that touch on the magnificence of Mother Earth.
The aim of the class is to be inspired by your ventures into Nature, the selected reading, and our discussions.
Your writing practice will be nourished by your deepening relationship with the natural world. We will also explore how artistic acts like writing, painting, sculpting, singing, playing music, cooking, baking, gardening, etc., are prayers towards healing and opportunities to share our heart-based creations.​
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All Levels Welcome
Format: Virtual 2-hour Zoom class
Dates: TBD - Sept. 2024
Class will convene every Tuesday
Two Time Offerings:
Class #1: 4 pm (PST) / 7 pm (EST)
Class #2: 7 am (PST) / 10 am (EST) / 15:00 (GMT)
Class size: Limit to 10
Course Fee: $185.00 with 10% going to Olympic Mountain EarthWisdom Circle (OMEC)
In Partnership with UCSD Division of Extended Studies
Nature Writing: The True Muse
Fall 2024
6-week asynchronous course
I LOVED this course. It is my favorite so far. Christina has a way of teaching the soul of writing, not just the rules. And the use of Nature as a guide brought out meaningful and imaginative stories I didn't even know I had in me. This class was educational and inspirational.
– UCSD Div. of Extended Studies student
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Next Offering Fall 2024
As writers, we are the witness and voice of our time, and as such, we are invited to translate what we experience to share and celebrate with the generations to come.
This course invites you to develop your writing while reconnecting with Mother Nature, or as author Bill Plotkin says, "grow deeper into our human nature". We will immerse ourselves in the contemplations of writers who have spent their life close to the heartbeat of Mother Nature. Through the examples of their offerings, your own discoveries in the inner and outer composition of your landscapes, you will shape writing that reveals the joy, and sometimes heartache, of walking this Earth.
Inspiration will come from time in Nature and direct experience with all she offers us. We will reclaim our wild self and play with a variety of forms from poetry to prose to performance.
In Partnership with UCSD Division of Extended Studies
Forms of Poetry
Summer 2024: July 15 to Aug. 25
6-week asynchronous course
Christina is a standout instructor, as indicated by the five-star rating. Christina demonstrates care and concern for students' well-being outside of class and works with students to accommodate their needs with understanding, flexibility, and compromise.
– UCSD Div. of Extended Studies student
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Amy Lowell wrote, “No one expects a man to make a chair without first learning how, but there is a popular impression that the poet is born, not made, and that his verses burst from his overflowing heart of themselves.
As a matter of fact, the poet must learn his trade in the same manner, and with the same painstaking care,
as the cabinet-maker.”
Let’s look at poetry from a designer’s perspective. As a designer of poetry, we are charged with creating works of beauty that sometimes fall within certain parameters such as: What does this “space” need? What do I want to “say” here? What are my materials? In this course, students will address the design qualities of a poem by experimenting with forms like the sonnet, ballad, ode, haiku, and villanelle.
No previous experience required
Course Number: WCWP-40308 Credit: 2.00 units
Certificate Programs: Creative Writing
Past Offerings
Course: Remembering Our Place in the Sacred Circle of Life (OMEC)
Fall & Spring courses offered since October 2021​
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Course: Forms of Poetry of Poetry (UCSD Extended Studies)
Winter & Summer courses offered since 2015
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Course: Nature Writing: The True Muse (UCSD Extended Studies)
Fall & Spring courses offered since 2022
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Workshop: Nature Writing: A Cross Curriculum Exercise (Grauer School)
March 2023
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Workshop: Creative Writing & Spring Renewal (California Center for Creative Renewal)
April 2023
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Workshop: Radiance in the Darkness (Salem Athenaeum, MA)
December 2022
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Workshop: Creativity & Belonging: Mother Nature as Muse (Grauer School)
March 2022
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Course: Introduction to Poetry (UCSD Extended Studies)
Offered from 2014 to 2016
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Course: Investigative Poetics: Our Other Self (UCSD Extended Studies)
Offered from 2009 to 2016