Everything Sacred

We’ll practice mining ordinary objects and activities for spiritual content, learn the difference between showing and telling, and discuss ways for getting started. Our attention calls forth holiness from within our experiences.

“God” (and Discovery) of God in the Details

The right details bring light and life to a story.  We’ll practice finding details that work and look through our descriptions to the meaning they uncover.

The Brilliance of Childhood

Our sacred journeys find their source and direction in our youngest years, when our first experiences marked us.  How can we explore early memories with compassion, curiosity, and humility? 

Courage and Truth Telling

“Only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth,” Audre Lorde wrote, “and that is not speaking.”  Writing memories is an exercise in truth-telling.  We’ll learn techniques to facilitate courageous honesty on the page—and in life.

The World Boiled Down to a Drop

Zora Neale Hurston wrote of one character, “She was the world and the heavens boiled down to a drop.”  We’ll explore the holographic nature of memoir:  Our small stories contain big truths. How can we reconstitute memories on the page so they hold both the vast universe and our beloved particulars?

Holy Resistance

Resistance—to creativity, to spiritual practice—can be a sign that our small, limited self feels threatened by our essential Self.  When we resist the process of writing or the material that arises, how can we open our hearts to transformation?

The Journey Within

It’s no coincidence that we describe the soul’s path as a journey.  The physical journeys we’ve taken (whether they’re dog-walks, cross-country trips, or overseas pilgrimages) have much to teach us about the soul’s journey—and about effective writing.

Describing the Indescribable

So much of the inner life is indescribable!  How can we possibly write it?  We’ll look at literary examples of enlightenment, emptiness, pain, ecstasy, and unconsciousness, and use literary tools to wrap language around the ineffable.

Dreams, Our Most Intimate Scripture

The feelings, images, and stories that come to us at night seep into our days and play an active role in our spiritual journeys.  How can we write about them effectively?  How can writing support our dreams to do their healing work?

Writing Transformation, Transforming Writing

Writers often find inspiration in experiences of surprising, radical, or gradual personal change.  How can we recreate these to become available to our readers?  We will also dabble in revision as a transformational practice.

The Blessed Body

Our bodies are trustworthy sources of memory and wisdom. Together we’ll write from our bodies, about our bodies, to our bodies, and with our bodies as a practice of welcoming the Spirit. We’ll also delve into sensory description as a literary technique that invites the reader deep into our experiences.

Cultivating Love

“What goes on in your innermost being is worthy of your whole love,” Rilke told the young poet. Writing memories can be an expression of this love. We’ll grapple lovingly with our past, practice writing as a loving act, and open ourselves to receiving love through the creative process.

Living the Questions

Questions pry open possibilities, expose alternatives, ask that we see through new eyes, motivate, open us to love—and are a writer’s best tool. We’ll explore questions as portals into memory and instruments of revision.

Characters: Real People in Two Dimensions

The people in our lives, including ourselves, become characters in our memoir. Yikes! How do we represent others both honestly and respectfully? We’ll learn about character development and how good craft practices—that is, creating complex portraits—are also loving practices.