Words as Windows: Writing, Listening, and Sharing in Life’s Edge Spaces

Words as Windows:  Writing, Listening, and Sharing in Life’s Edge Spaces 

Life is full of edge spaces:  places of discomfort, transition, confusion, but also of growth and healing.  Words, the practices of writing, listening and sharing, can provide us with windows of insight and tools for navigating these spaces.

Join Journey Center Great Lakes for this three-part series and explore words as windows to the Holy.  We encourage you to join us for the entire series, including a check-in between Zoom gatherings. 

This three-part series will gather as follows:

Thursday, September 25th from 6:30-8:00 pm CST/7:30-9:00pm EST

In this first part of the series, join Andrew Wood as you are invited into an opportunity to dip your toe into playing with and listening to your own words.   Creating within the rhythm of a Haiku — 5, 7, 5 —  you have a framework in which to pay attention to what is stirring in and rising up in you, and then responding. We will have time to create several Haiku’s with an optional time of sharing and adding voice to our creating and listening.

Thursday, October 9th from 6:30-8:00 pm CST/7:30-9:00 pm EST

In this second part of the series titled, Be Astonished! Free write your way into a poem that will amaze you, join Heather Monkmeyer to experiment with a new prayerful and playful practice.  Writing can be a fruitful way of exploring our interior worlds and all its landscape, bringing to voice what, up to now, may have had no words.  Together we will see what happens — we will be astonished!— when we write freely and then are confronted with lines and fragments from published poems, following them wherever they lead. Whether you identify as a poet or you haven’t written a poem since the third grade, this is a perfect space for anyone willing put pen to paper. Bring a journal and a favorite writing tool. 

Thursday, October 30th from 6:30-8:00 pm CST/7:30-9:00 EST

In this final part of the series, join Emily Conway and explore edge spaces through deep reading, listening, and sharing. We’ll talk about what it means to read and listen deeply, then practice with short passages of prose and poetry. We’ll have time to share our experiences (optional) with the group. You will encounter the generative power of stillness and quiet along with the sacred experience of community around a shared text.

The practice element of each gathering will be recorded and available to those who register.

The 3-part series is $150. Each session is $50.

If you sign up for the entire Series, there will be a check-in in between each session, allowing the Spirit’s movement to continue while noticing connections with how the Holy may be present with you in this season.

If you want to attend the series and the fee is a hardship, please contact Jennifer at jennifer@journeycentergreatlakes.org.

Register today using the form below!