Fearless Hearts: Women Leaders in Contemplative Social Action – Writing on Empty

As part of our Fearless Hearts: Women Leaders in Contemplative Social Action series, award-winning author and teacher, Natalie Goldberg will discuss her new book, Writing on Empty, A Guide to Finding Your Voice. Goldberg shares her inspiring personal journey out of a devastating period of writer’s block and back into a life of growth, creativity, and healing.
Somatic Art Practice: Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Compassionate Action

This peacemaker circle draws on somatic art practices for our personal distress and sense of global crises in our own bodies. Diana Hartel has been using some form of this practice for 20 years with individuals and communities. She is trained in therapeutic touch modalities, visual arts, and she is certified in Somatic Experiencing; this is woven into 25 years […]
Everything Changes; Everything is Connected; Pay Attention

A Conversation with Jane Hirshfield Jane Hirshfield and Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe will be talking about the Three Tenets, the way poems carry the values of right speech in their marrow, right action in the realms of both biosphere and social compact, and compassionate attention as the ground of change.
Opening our Hearts to the Joy & Suffering of Life Through Drawing & Journaling (Session 4 of 4)

Nothing Left Out-finding beauty in improbable places Journaling has been used as a tool for seeing deeper into life by Zen practitioners, artists and naturalists. In this workshop we will begin our own unique journey into meditation with eyes open, discovering more and more layers of intimacy with our life and environment. For this workshop all […]
Opening our Hearts to the Joy & Suffering of Life Through Drawing & Journaling (Session 3 of 4)

Journaling has been used as a tool for seeing deeper into life by Zen practitioners, artists and naturalists. In this workshop we will begin our own unique journey into meditation with eyes open, discovering more and more layers of intimacy with our life and environment. For this workshop we will be drawing inspiration from nature, journaling […]
Opening our Hearts to the Joy & Suffering of Life Through Drawing & Journaling (Session 2 of 4)

For this workshop we will draw inspiration from the written word. This is different than formal koan work. In it we are taking a koan, haiku and poem as a jumping off point for our imaginations. The koans contains wisdom we can access even in this non-traditional way.
Opening our Hearts to the Joy & Suffering of Life Through Drawing & Journaling (Session 1 of 4)

Journaling has been used as a tool for seeing deeper into life by Zen practitioners, artists and naturalists. In this workshop we will begin our own unique journey into meditation with eyes open, discovering more and more layers of intimacy with our life and environment.
The Art of Appreciative Attention

John Brehm, author of Dharma Talk (Wisdom Publications, 2023) proposes a new way of reading poetry, one where our primary intention is to find greater intimacy with the poem rather than greater understanding of it. Just as a person will relax and come alive when they feel truly seen, poems begin to glow in the light […]
Bearing Witness to the Beauty of Everyday Objects

Bearing witness to beauty is just as important as bearing witness to suffering. Beauty nurtures love and joy; suffering nurtures compassion and connection. In this hour and half-drawing workshop, we will take everyday objects from our environment, see them in a new light, and honor them through our drawing. No drawing experience is needed. Come […]
THE MOTHERS OF GYNECOLOGY MONUMENT

warning: this video discussed racial violence The erection of the “Mothers of Gynecology” monument honors the sacrifice of Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey, the enslaved experimental subjects of the so-called “father of gynecology,” J. Marion Sims. Michelle L. Browder (with Deborah Shedrick), Mothers of Gynecology, 2021, found metal objects and other media, roughly 15 feet high […]