Friday, January 22, 2016

Celebrate Your Personal Autobiography: Creative Practices to Feed the Soul

A new creative writing workshop is in the planning for early 2016 - date to be announced.  Location: SE Portland

Workshop Description:


This workshop for women will focus on using writing and creative expression exercises to celebrate and empower your creative life. We will journey together acknowledging the gifts and inner resources we bring to the world and activating support for bringing our creative brilliance into new expression. We will look to ancient myths and women’s stories to gain clues and insight for examining our own creative journeys with fresh eyes.  This workshop will appeal to women who are in transition to new forms of outer expression in the world, on creative paths, and all women who wish to explore their inner radiance through writing and creative expression. We will use a combination of creative writing, collage exercises and other creative exercises for inspiration and guidance. 

Contact me for more info: writewithgaia [at] gmail.com

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Write Your Spiritual Autobiography Workshop

Stay tuned for a new creative writing workshop coming in Fall 2013: Write Your Spiritual Autobiography. 

Details will be posted soon. If you would like to receive info on this please email me at writewithgaia [at] gmail [dot] com

Monday, October 31, 2011

Gaia's Greetings ~ A Review of the Creating the Sacred with Gaia Creative Writing Workshop

I am honored to have received the following beautiful review of the recent Creating the Sacred With Gaia Creative Writing Workshop held at New Renaissance from one of the participants:

It was quiet and peaceful upon entering. The patient and kindly approach of the facilitator, Kathy Stanley, greeted one with open arms and a subdued, gentle voice. The Creating the Sacred with Gaia Workshop offered a connection with an entity that the majority of people could only presume to be none other than soil, “earth,” dirt, dust. Gaia – Mother Earth – is more than that. What the writer does not completely recognize, not initially, anyway, is that Gaia embodies the beginning and endless circle within which living organisms thrive, from the minute ameba to the torment that is released from a writer’s refuge.

Ms. Stanley commenced the small group by honoring life through connection with Mother Earth. From there, free expression, with or without prompts, laid the foundation of an intimate experience. There were poems about love and reincarnation, stories about caverns, essays about bravery imparted from a mother’s delicate demeanor to her little boy who would one day be a man. There were prayerful letters written from the writer’s window about wisdom that Mother Earth would lay upon one’s hands that would absolve frightened hearts and once feared territories. A solid synthesis sprouted from this group of humble writers, enhanced with clear direction and a giving gentle soul of its facilitator. From here, tendrils tried their ways and won. The writers discovered and rediscovered long forgotten voices and memories, as well as instant expressions. Mother Earth was present, her doors opened.

The workshop gave way to mountains of leaves, colors, words, and imageries, recompense sought and borne from within. So when the writers walked into the open space after having communed with Mother Earth, her tendrils trailed with them, connected.

– Diane P.
Participant

Monday, October 24, 2011

Thank You!

Ghost Ranch, Abiqui New Mexico
Thank you to the wonderful group of women who wrote with me yesterday in the Creating the Sacred with Gaia workshop. It was a rich, soulful experience and an honor to write with you .... and a special thanks to the poet who brought a little bit of Ghost Ranch, New Mexico to share with us...

I will be offering this workshop again in the future and will announce dates here and by email.
Blessings!
Kathy

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Writing Workshop Tomorrow

Greetings! I'm excited and looking forward to the writing workshop tomorrow at New Ren. If you are planning to join me remember to bring your notebook or journal, water and if you feel like bringing something to place on our altar representing your connection to Mother Earth you are welcome to do that. We'll start at 2.30 and go till 5. It will be fun! Bright Blessings, Kathy

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Creating the Sacred with Gaia: A Creative Writing Workshop Sunday October 23, 2011

This writing workshop will explore our relationship with the natural world by using our creativity to deepen our connection with the Earth. Reading short passages and poetry, we will gain inspiration for our writing while opening ourselves for some visioning for the new earth we are co-creating with Gaia. This workshop will focus not on producing perfect writing, but rather on being in a supportive atmosphere to give voice to what is wanting expression about our connection with earth. We will write together using timed writing exercises and share our writing with each other.

Participants will explore their relationship with the earth by allowing the inner voice to be expressed in a supportive atmosphere. The readings and prompts are conducive for going inward and being in a meditative, reflective state. This will inspire us to creatively move beyond our small individual selves and into a more intimate relationship with nature and a larger sense of ecological community.

Please bring your journal or notebook. You are also invited to bring something for the altar representing your connection to Mother Earth.

Location: New Renaissance Bookshop
               1338 NW 23rd Ave, Portland, Oregon 97210
Date:       Sunday, October 23rd, 2011 2.30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost:       $25
Register:  With New Renaissance at this link, in store, or call 503-224-4929
Contact:  call Kathy at 503-267-3122 or email writewithgaia@gmail.com

Workshop facilitator:

Kathy Stanley has a B.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature from Marylhurst University and is a graduate student at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. She is a Corelight Minister, studying for many years with enlightenment teacher Leslie Temple-Thurston of Corelight. She has studied Deep Ecology with renowned rainforest activist John Seed of Australia and completed shamanic practitioner's training with John Perkins. She has also studied creative writing with Natalie Goldberg, The Attic Writer’s Studio and the Salmon Street Writing Studio in Portland. Kathy’s writings can be found on her blogs at sacredtravel.wordpress.com, kathystanley.blogspot.com and LabrishJamaica.blogspot.