A Tale of Two Writing Workshops

Yesterday, I facilitated two writing workshops; the topic was spiritual journaling.  The approach was the same, but the attendance was different.

I presented a variety of writing prompts with time to write.  We didn't have time to read our writing out loud to each other, and I wouldn't have done that, even if we had lots of workshop time.  If we had had more time, I might have had us do some out loud processing of the writing experience itself. 

Here's what we did:

--I had objects on a table (yes, that old chestnut--but I haven't ever done it with this group), and I had people choose several.  Then we wrote for 5 minutes.  Because it's a religious retreat, I added 2 minutes of writing about what God might be saying to us through the object.

--We wrote to our current selves.  We wrote in the voice of ourselves 20-50 years from now.  We wrote in the voice of our younger selves, the women we were when we were 18-20 years old.   After doing that, we wrote in the voice of God:  Creator, Redeemer, Holy Spirit and/or The Trinity.

--Because writing in the voice of God might have felt sacrilegious, I had us make a list of what's bringing us joy and then talked about the Ignatian ideas of consolation and desolation, and the value of making that list at the end of the day.  We also talked about gratitude lists.

--I handed out two double-sided sheets of writing prompts.  We talked about the value of doing spiritual journaling alone and with a group.  

--I also talked about non-word ways of journaling, like sketching or taking a daily photo.

--I reminded us that two thousand years of spiritual practices gives us lots of options, and the assurance that if we've dropped a practice and want to return, we can.

The first workshop was just before lunch, and we had less time than the scheduled 45 minutes, which was fine with me.  It was a completely full workshop:  people had three to choose from.

In the afternoon, a workshop was added:  the chance to meet with the retreat leader.  My afternoon spiritual journaling workshop had one person.  So that it would feel less strange to us both, I decided to do the prompts too.  It turned out to be a nice variation.

Originally I had planned to leave Williamsburg today, but I decided that I needed to be gentle with myself and that my Monday students can have a writing day without me.  I'm glad that I have an extra day to linger in the satisfaction of a good retreat.