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The Friday Pre-conference Intensives are now SOLD OUT. We do not have a waiting list and will not be registering people for these intensives onsite. Thank you all for your great interest. Please join us for the full conference starting on Friday evening. | |||
Pre-Conference Intensives |
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101 Is There a Call for Me? Marjory Zoet Bankson Do you feel swamped and overwhelmed with demands on your time? Do you know what your true work is? What difference would it make if you did?
Using art and poetry, biblical story and group reflection, we will focus on the nature and nurture of call at this particular time in your life. We will start with the concept of call, exploring contemporary images and poetry of call and gifts. You will have the opportunity to work with an array of art images to create a collage/impression of your current call in all its complexity. We will explore opposition and assistance, and leave with a simple "locator" to guide your next steps. Come ready to share your wit, wisdom and creativity. Marjory Zoet Bankson is author of The Call to the Soul, editor of Faith@Work magazine, a seasoned relational teacher, and a member of Seekers, a Church of the Saviour community. 102 Hidden Treasure: Your Story as a Gift Noa Baum What is the story of love in your life in its myriad forms and challenges? What aspects could inspire others? Come embark on this journey to discover how your story is a gift worth passing on. Storytelling is at the heart of the human experience. As basic as food and shelter it nourishes the deepest roots of heart and mind, helps us find meaning in the world, and a path of connecting to the universal. Stories are how we spread the idea of living with an open heart. Exploring the power of the oral language, we will create a community of tellers and listeners. We will play and interact through visual arts, movement and voice to deepen our connection to our story. You will learn to shape something from your life into a story ready topass on as a gift to inspire others, and leave with more story-seeds to develop over time. Noa Baum is an award-winning Israeli storyteller trained in theatre and education. She focuses on her craft’s power to heal across the divides of identity. 103 “Motherlines” of the Spirit Carol Lee Flinders If Saint Teresa of Avila were among us today, what would she do for a living? If we passed Julian of Norwich in the street, would we recognize her? So begins Flinders’ Enduring Lives, sequel to her landmark Enduring Grace: Portraits of Seven Women Mystics. She answers these questions in surprising ways, citing women of incredible diversity whose stories carry a powerful, transformative charge. Come explore the possibility that we each have spiritual “motherlines,” radiant streams of awareness flowing down through time and out among us. What might their qualities be? Suppose they were to flow unimpeded into our own lives. How might our collective desire to help re-birth this battered world be strengthened? Join this day to discover how we each might align ourselves with vital, nourishing motherlines. Together we’ll learn a meditative practice that allows us to tap into the wealth of spirit each of us possesses. Carol Lee Flinders, Ph.D., co-author of the classic Laurel’s Kitchen cookbooks, has written extensively about women’s spirituality in such titles as Enduring Lives: Portraits of Faith in Action. |
104 Finding the Thread: Faith and the Practice of Writing Nora Gallagher When you sit down to write, do you find yourself either unable to put your words on paper or so terrified of your inner critic that once the words are written down, you hate them? Together, for this day, we’ll work on faith and finding the thread. We’ll throw out most of what you may have been taught about writing: transition sentences, outlines, topic sentences in a paragraph. (This old way of teaching writing is like training an architect to design a house by describing exactly how to cut two by fours.) Another approach to writing is based on associative thinking: One thought follows from the next, as they are set on paper. Understanding builds up as you do it. The material itself, like the experience of faith, begins to teach you what you want to say. We’ll do simple writing exercises, keep confidentiality, and support each other in this miraculous struggle to free our voices. Nora Gallagher is author of two memoirs on faith, Things Seen and Unseen and Practicing Resurrection, and a new novel, Changing Light. She teaches writing workshops nationwide, underwritten by the Lilly Endowment. 105 The Mystical Path of the Heart Nancy Zarifah Kadian The Heart is a spiritual center of consciousness that offers a universe of experience and understanding. It is the meeting place of the human and Divine within us. The Sufi path is often described as the Path of the Heart. It is not a path of doctrine or concepts but of direct experience of the mystical Heart, the storehouse of compassion. Awakening our consciousness to Divine love within the Heart allows us to see with different eyes and a heart that is more tender, flexible and loving. Centered in the Heart, we become stronger and able to abide the natural ups and downs of life, more forgiving, tolerant, and loving to ourselves and others. Through guided meditations, breathing exercises, chanting, music, movement, journaling and other practices, we will touch the depth of love in our Hearts, and integrate our experiences in an outflow of love, harmony, beauty and action. Nancy Zarifah Kadian, L.C.S.W., has been a student and teacher in the Sufi Order International for over 30 years and practices psychotherapy in Bethesda, Md. 106 Lovingkindness Sharon Salzberg Lovingkindness meditation cultivates our natural capacity for an open and loving heart. One of the four Buddhist “Brahma Viharas,” or sublime states of mind, it is traditionally offered with meditations that enrich compassion, enhance joy in the happiness of others, and deepen our own sense of peace. Done regularly, these practices lead to the development of concentration, connection, fearlessness and genuine happiness. Yet even the beginning taste of them over a day’s time can foster a noticeable deepening of relaxation and a gentle shift in awareness. Come receive an introduction to these teachings offered in Sharon Salzberg’s warm and attentive style. Using classical techniques expressed in contemporary language, she’ll support us in our personal experience and cultivation of these qualities through direct instruction and guided meditation. There will be opportunities throughout the day to ask questions. This workshop is suitable for both new and experienced meditators. Sharon Salzberg is co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass. One of America’s leading spiritual teachers and authors, she has been a student of Buddhism since 1971 and has led retreats worldwide since 1974. Her latest book is The Force of Kindness.
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