I am sending you this Introduction to the upcoming Alchemy of Writing retreat at Mountain Waters in Nelson. First of all, if you have already done a retreat with me, I want to let you know that every 'Alchemy of Writing' workshop or retreat is different. The process itself is alive, growing, and evolving, and so are you! Writing is like life-unpredictable, wild, and full of mystery.

In order to help you prepare for this retreat, I’d like to make it clear that this way of writing is not at all geared to producing a specific result. That may or may not happen, but it not why we are coming together on retreat. We are going to explore what it is like to open to the unknown, and write from that place, without any idea of preference about where that carries us.

This approach to writing is a spiritual practice, in the sense that we are working, moment to moment, with the nature of our conditioned mind. This mind avoids, judges, manipulates and controls. There is nothing wrong with any of these things, they are just what arise for us as human beings, again and again. At the retreat, we will be resting in the space of presence, and learning how to trust our creative energy to carry us beyond these conditioned impulses.

You can ask yourself these questions, as you prepare for the retreat: Am I willing to receive whatever comes, as I write?  Am I willing to inquire, and then sit without knowing, as something emerges? Am I willing to go below the stream of my thinking, and write from my heart, from my body and from this place of not knowing? Am I willing to let go of the ideas I have about who I am, and listen to new dimensions of my being express themselves?

The more you can rest in this openness, the more the river of creativity, love, and wisdom can flow through you.