Workshops
The intention to create a sanctuary begins with the recognition that the land, plants, trees, water, air, and light, are all sacred.
Everything is sacred including the oasis of our balcony, our neighbors’ yards, the trees at the local park, and all the nearby trails that snake over hills and mountains and past waterways.
with San Diego Writers, Ink
Nature Writing: A Deep Dive
Three Sessions – Saturdays, 6/17, 7/29 & 8/26
This series of three 3-hour workshops (taken alone or together) is designed to awaken your connection with nature as a source of inspiration, creativity, and belonging. You may purchase one session individually or all three for a discount. All workshops will be held outside, weather permitting. We will meet at Inspirations Gallery and will walk together to an outdoor area to write. Be ready for all weather and bring a hat!
This workshop is intended for all levels of writers.
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Dates: Saturdays, 6/17, 7/29 & 8/26
Time: 9AM to 12 PM
Price per class: Member $54 /Nonmember $63
Location: San Diego Writers, Ink San Diego, CA
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1. Learning How to See: The Practice of Observing
Saturday, June 17 - Spending time in the natural world is one way to sharpen our skills of observation and become the hollow bone. After taking time to go within and ground ourselves to the earth herself, we will open our awareness outward, igniting our senses and taking in all that is open to us in the moment. We will invite our imaginations to translate what we sense and intuit in both the seen and unseen worlds.
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2. Composite Beings: The Elements as Our Guides
Saturday, July 29 - We will consider the four elements as a framework for thinking about the borderless nature of awareness and life. When we notice one thing, it is likely that it raises our attention to other things previously unseen. The elements intermix and reflect our dynamic and interrelated nature. Rain works with Wind. Fire can be doused by Rain. Earth sustains us all. We are 70% water; we push and pull air through our lungs, and the fire in our belly helps digest the Earth’s bounty.
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3. Kincentricity: Animals as Teachers
Saturday, August 26 - This workshop will be held outdoors so that we can extend our awareness to the animal world while considering how our kinship makes up the constellation of life on Earth. As we examine our relationship with the animal realm, we will consider these questions: Who keeps showing up in your life from the animal world? Do they appear when you need support, a lesson, or a friend? Is there an animal encounter from your past that has left an indelible mark? What animal in particular pulls at your heartstrings and asks for you to represent them through your artistic expression?
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In Partnership with California Center for Creative Renewal
Creative Writing & Spring Renewal
Saturday, April 1, 2023, 9-5
This in-person all-day writing workshop is designed to revitalize our creativity by opening us to the wisdom and teachings of the natural world.
With our offering of attention, Mother Nature reciprocates with her own beautiful language that will most certainly find its way into our own writing.
We will spend time writing and reading in community. To encourage imagination and play, there will be guided meditations, visualizations, curated readings, and writing prompts. We will discuss, share and hold space for what arises. You may write in whatever form pleases you including journaling, poetry, prose, memoir, novel, and non-fiction.
This workshop is intended for all levels of writers.
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Date: Saturday April 1, 2023
Time: 9AM to 5 PM
Price: $120 (Early Bird pricing $110)
Location: California Center for Creative Renewal, Encinitas, CA
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The California Center for Creative Renewal is founded on the belief that making art in the safety of a beautiful, natural environment is life affirming. We are committed to assisting participants in reclaiming their creative potential through the process of artistic expression. In the quiet haven of our healing gardens, we support individuals, organizations and communities in overcoming the challenges and stresses of daily life.
In Partnership with Salem Athenaeum
Radiance in the Darkness
Saturday, December 3, 2022 from 10-12 AM
Like all things in the natural world, we are sensitive to the shifts in weather, light, and temperature. As we approach the Winter Solstice, when the days are shorter, Nature calls us to slow down, rest, and replenish in the darkness of the long winter nights.
The word “darkness” can mean the absence of light, a feeling of despair or grief, a lack of knowing, extinction, and even death, but this restorative time of year is also fertile ground for our imagination. This 2-hour writing workshop invites writers of all levels to reflect and set intentions for the coming period of extended darkness.
Participants will be led in a poetry-based mindfulness exercise, a nature-inspired visualization experience, and offer writing prompts inspired by selected reading. There will be time for discussion and sharing. Whether you call yourself a writer or not, the workshop invites you to go deeper to stoke our inner creative fire and reveal the radiance that comes from looking inward and taking care of ourselves.
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Date: Saturday, December 3, 2022
Time: 10AM to 12PM
Cost: Members $40; Non-members $55;
Students; $20
Location: Salem Anthnaeum, Salem, MA
In Partnership with Wild Willow Farm & Education Center
Nature Inspired Writing: Creativity & Belonging
Sunday, November 13, 2022 - 10 to 1
The science is in: spending time in nature boosts physical and mental health and fires up our imagination. When we connect with the natural world, we open up to a deeper relationship with all that is alive, and as a result, gain an authentic sense of belonging.
During this 3-hour nature-inspired workshop, we will walk the farm to wake up our senses. We will slow our pace and take time to notice textures, inhale the scents of herbs and native plants, and observe the insects and birds who call this land home. We will also read inspiring poetry and prose about Nature and then write about what comes from the entire experience.
This workshop will enliven your creativity and give you a a sense of belonging with the natural world.
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Wild Willow Farm is the perfect classroom and source of inspiration. With guided prompts and time to practice spontaneous writing, we are sure to have an unforgettable time together.
All are welcome. Come if you are a writer. Come if you are not a writer. This is about spending time together outdoors and being open to what arises.
Format: In-Person 3-hour class
Date: Sunday, November 13, 2022
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Class size: Limit to 20
Price: $30.00
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Wild Willow Farm & Education Center is a project of the Resource Conservation District of San Diego County. The center operates a 5-acre educational farm in the Tijuana River Valley, 15 minutes south of downtown San Diego. The center trains the next generation of farmers and gardeners in cutting-edge regenerative growing techniques, practices which emphasize the importance of building healthy, fertile, living soil as a fundamental component of growing healthy food and healthy communities.
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