Writing as a Spiritual Practice

Writing as a Spiritual Practice, With Nancy Linnon MFA

Saturday, March 7th from 10:00 – 4:00 & Sunday, March 8th from 1:00 – 4:00

Writing can be a powerful spiritual practice akin to prayer, meditation, or yoga. When we use writing as a “spiritual practice,” it becomes a tool for developing the part of us that allows us to be present in life without becoming caught in the swirl of it, unbalanced by the daily responsibilities and unpredictable crises. It invites us to explore our life experience in ways that help us glimpse, and be touched by, mystery. During this weekend, we’ll delve into ways we can use writing to:

• tap into the unconscious
• understand our lives in fresh and surprising ways
• transform despair
• experience wonder
• transform life events into stories rich with personal mystery and meaning

We’ll develop a deeper relationship with a practice we can use, whenever we choose, to help us touch the river always flowing beneath the surface of our lives.

Writing as a spiritual practice is one of the ways we can trace the presence of mystery and the outlines of grace.

–Pat Schneider

About Nancy Linnon

Nancy’s personal essays have appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Los Angeles Review, Yoga International, Mothering, Brevity, and the anthologies What Wildness Is This: Women Write About the Southwest, Rage & Reconciliation: Inspiring a Healthcare Revolution, among others. Nancy started her career as a journalist for U.S. News & World Report and has taught writing for over twenty-five years in high schools, universities, retreat centers, and community venues. She has a master’s in teaching from Brown University, an MFA in creative nonfiction from Antioch University, and has been awarded writing residencies at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, Soapstone, and Hypatia-in-the-Woods. After fifteen years of meaningful exile in the Arizona desert, she moved to wet, lush Oregon with her husband, Jesse, and son, Jake. Her passion is exploring ways of accessing the creative self through the powerful act of writing. Visit her website at themovingpen.net