I’ve been engaged in writing a series on water. Water is Energy is an essay in a forth-coming book, Re-Imagining Fire, April 2023. I’ve also been writing a Water parable which is about fear, a monster emerging from a lake, and love. It’s due out in a collection in September 2023. My novel remains in progress. Hooray, it is so much fun to write!!!

I’m making my way to the front of the crowd of writers, speakers, educators, leaders, thinkers, artists, who offer opportunities to directly connect with a creative process and engage with others involved in the same encounter.

Why?

I’m responding. I’m reciprocating.

I began my response to the pandemic by writing How do I respond? in the center of a piece of paper. During day-long walks, during my year-long sun rise experiment in 2020 and, again, in 2022/2023, during slow cooking meals, during long conversations with people I love, I have asked again and again, how do I respond? I suppose the question is attached to another of my favourite questions, Why am I here?

I believe I’m here, in part, to directly experience life. To feel the physical sensations of being alive. To be shaped by life. To be in flow with life. Life has met me half-way. We are in co-creation. I’ve been living through an expansive period in my life. My days are marked by gratitude and love.

How do I serve love? is my current question. I ask it every day. For over three months I’ve been asking what is needed to serve love. Here is an invitation:

February, March and April 2023, I’m offering the on-line opportunity to directly experience a community/writers group held by love, shaped by experiment and in service of a greater sense of ease and meaning for all. Joy is here. Laughter is here. Six consecutive weeks starting the last week of February.

The beginning: We’ll meet in a generative workshop on February 11, 2023. 2.5 hours with two movement practices and a 30 minute break for walking. SIGN UP for the workshop here. We will write and use writing/symbol making/story telling as tools of expression. As a published writer in essay, personal memoir pieces, short stories and novels, I have experiences and experiments with form I’d like to share. You are not required to sign up for any writing group by coming to the workshop. You can only attend the workshop if you like.

To REGISTER, click the banner at the top of the page.

I’ll make a recording of one of the practices available for those who register but are unable to attend the workshop.

We welcome you. We welcome your fears and anxieties, your frustrations, and your longing for a different way to live or for everyone else to live like you! We welcome your skepticism and your belief in possibility. We welcome your weird and your rational mind. We welcome you.

Our experiments involve:

• Delving into relationship between you and ______(earth, mycelium, water, intimacy with a loved one, your memories, your dreams, rocks, mountains, prairies, the body, etc…) ________ in a direct experience.

• A period of noticing and observation.

• A reflective expression in writing/symbols/story being told.

• An experience of sitting with/seeing/hearing experimenters with varied perspectives.

• An experience of deep compassion, joy and laughter.

• A writing, revising and editing process with the goal of practicing/gaining skill in being present to the writing experience. Considerations of form, sentence building, word choosing, image and metaphor, pattern and rhythm, will arise through deep noticing and specific craft instruction offered in PDFs and notes. Also included are craft resources and reading recommendations tailored to the group’s needs/interests.

On February 11, 2023, I’ll open registrations for writing groups: six writers per group.

To REGISTER for the WORKSHOP, click the banner at the top of the page.

I’ll make a recording of one of the practices available for those who register but are unable to attend the workshop.

Scheduling concerns: I’ll offer writing groups on Tuesday mornings 10:30 MST, Wednesday evenings 6:30 MST, Thursday mornings 10:30 MST, and Thursday evenings 7:30 MST. The times are a bit flexible, so if you know you’re interested and the timing won’t work for you, send me an email with a suggested time and we’ll find a way.

Cost: I’m conducting three experiments related to reciprocity.

1. Half of all money I earn will go towards fledging the non-profit organization The Academy of Life as a Learning Lab. I will receive no income from The Academy of Life as a Learning Lab, now or in the future. It is an organization I’m helping to nurture. The other founders of this organization, Bri Strong and Miranda Logan-Webb are vibrant writers and artists and facilitators who are conducting inspirational life experiments.

2. I would like to embrace an option for a gift economy which does not involve money. Gifts are made. Gifts are found. Gifts are chosen. If you, for any reason, prefer a gift economy experiment option, you will consider how your skills and talents can be shaped into a gift to offer this reciprocity opportunity.

3. At the end of our group work together, you might want to make an offering, ask for something more, begin to lead experiments with a different group of people. Please follow your intuition. Please speak up. We are here to support one another. : )

My teachers: since 2017, I’ve been in deep study about writing and life. My MFA introduced me to amazing teachers Gayle Brandeis, Patricia Smith, Sunil Yapa, Peter Mountford, Lidia Yuknavitch, Rebecca Makkai. In 2022, Artists Eveline Koljin and Liz Ingram have been influential in my development through the water projects. Margaret Wheatley has helped me gain ground in living with intention, bravery and dedication during a difficult time in the world since 2020. Meg has brought qi-gong into my life- a movement and breath practice. I’ve also sought the knowledge of Carolyn Sargentson, a UK breathwork teacher. Close friends and artists have welcomed me into worlds of wonder and deep-caring. Andrea and Hap Wilson at Cabin Falls in September 2022 expanded my perspective again with their great love of the land, of respect for all. Bri Strong has been in my orbit for over eight years and their prompts of questioning life have expanded my perspective exponentially. Our 17 month old dog, Athena, has been a primary teacher. I practice many experiments in my relationships with all of my family, children and grand-children, ex’s and my current life-partner, Tom. We are all growing together.

Writers I continue to work with: The BC writers, The Island Writers, The Ghost Lake Writers all contribute to more and more experiments and a healthy and thoughtful me. I like to think we’re shaping the world with our kindness and love for one another. I’m thrilled to imagine the potential for 2023.

Notes on Reciprocity:

• reciprocity is a noun but the latin root of the word– reciprocus– is a verb, an action of rise and fall, move back and forth.

• So…I’m running back to my experiences and forth towards you and I’m always holding gratitude and love.

• I am grateful for my life. I am in love with being alive.

• The experiments we conduct collect direct evidence of life being lived around and through all of us, all beings. They can guide us in how to live and how to love. For me, many of the experiments provide a literal feet-on-the-ground, body as sensory organ, experience. Love needs a be-ing.