Pre-Festival Intensive - Mark Nepo

Journey with No End: Writing and Spiritual Growth

Monday, August 12 7:00 pm – Wednesday, August 14 4:30 pm

As no one can live without inhaling and exhaling, no one can live without feeling and expressing. The life of expression is how the heart breathes and how our spirit grows in the life that carries it. Writing, whatever form it takes—poetry, story, memoir, or reflection—is a personal form of expression, a necessary conversation with the Universe. As meditation is an ancient art that deepens our relationship to how we breathe, writing is an ancient art that deepens our relationship to all that matters. And just as the reward for practicing meditation is not that we'll become great breathers but that we'll become clear vessels of life-force, the reward for practicing a personal form of expression is not that we'll become great writers but that such practice will help us wake closer to life.

Day one of our workshop will explore The Gift of Vision and The Art of Perception, which centers on the lifelong process of listening, reflecting, and expressing; as well as Unraveling the Self: Writing Our Way into Our Lives, which focuses on how bearing witness to the truth of living reveals the mysteries of life. Day two will explore Effort and Grace: The Magic of the Creative Process, which centers on the paradox of will and surrender as oars that steer the soul; as well as Becoming the Poem, which centers on the artist's journey and struggle between giving attention and getting attention.

My hope for our time together is that we can touch into the miraculous depth of being that is always just below whatever we carry, and that you'll return to your life having discovered and deepened a very personal form of expression that you can walk with in your days.

Bring a journal.