. unearth: registration has begun .

Unearth

(a be present retreat)

October 14-18, 2009

Registration for the Fall 2009 Be Present Retreat has begun!

This October, we will gather in Manzanita, Oregon and spend three days exploring the theme of unearth through workshops that will include painting and creating with mixed media, photography, writing, and yoga.

Workshops:

Unearthing Your Most Precious Hidden Layers

with Andrea Scher

Unearthing Your Messy, Creative, Painterly Self

with Kelly Rae Roberts

Unearthing This Moment: Body, Mind, Heart

with Liz Lamoreux

*****

There is so much I want to say about this theme and the classes we have dreamed up for this fall. While Kelly, Andrea, and I were brainstorming this theme, I sent them a paragraph of an image that kept coming to me. I wrote...

When thinking about our theme of "unearth," this image comes to mind: My grandmother had a ritual of walking around her backyard in the early morning. Closing my eyes, I see her at different times of the year: Pushing aside the dead leaves of winter to look for any new growth. Peeking under the huge pine tree to see if the lily of the valley or trilliums were blooming yet. Leaning over in the small wooded area to pick violets to put in a jelly jar on the kitchen windowsill. Snipping off the wilted blooms so that new blooms could grow. When I would visit my grandparents as a teenager and then as a college student, she would push me to join her. There was often such a bite in the early morning air and heavy dew on the grass, so I was sometimes resistent, just wanting breakfast or to go back to bed or how the list goes on. I didn't realize at the time that she was letting me in on her personal practice. As spring has started arriving this year, I have thought about the unearthing she was doing during these walks as she would literally look for new growth and discard the "dead stuff" but also as she would give herself the space to look inward without distractions during this time alone where she seemed to feel most at home with herself.

In this fall retreat, we will explore tools to add to our personal and creative practices as we unearth our authentic voices. We will discover our core values, begin to listen to the whispers that say we are creative beings, and seek a balance within as we let go of distractions and connect.

We hope you will join us on this adventure! Find out more at the be present retreats site.

Many blessings,

Liz

a new adventure: the be present retreats

When we open ourselves to the light and listen to the truth within us, we find possibility. Through this new understanding, we find our center, we find our breath, we find our path.

For a few years now, a dream has been living inside me. At first, it was a whisper and I would hear it and honor that I heard it, but just keep going. But, sometimes I would allow myself to imagine what this dream might look like if it was a true part of my life. Slowly, it became something I would write about in my idea journal...possibility began to take form. Then it became a dream told to a few people over tea and phone calls across the miles. And finally, finally this dream that was once a whisper that became possibility became a tangible page of this journey.

This dream is about people gathering in community where they can create and share and be together. This dream is about people taking time away from their daily lives to begin to hear their own whispering dreams. This dream is about the connection between yoga and living a creative life. This dream is about sitting around the fire at the end of the day, taking a deep breath and looking inward, playing with art supplies and words, and growing more into yourself.

I am beyond excited to be sharing this with you...you reading this who support me in this space and listen to me as I share pieces of me...I am so excited to be sharing this new adventure with you...

The Be Present Retreats

The Be Present Retreats were born from the belief that creating is a meditation of the soul. Each retreat is an invitation to pause in your life and gather in a supportive environment filled with like-minded individuals in a creative, playful, and meditative atmosphere.

June 2009 brings Self-Portrait Excavation, a retreat centered around the journey that is the self-portrait. We will gather on the coast in Gearhart, Oregon and immerse ourselves in paint, words, photography, and the beauty of our surroundings under the guidance of Judy Wise, Jen Goff, and me.

I hope you will take some time to explore the Be Present Retreats blog (and join me in a little dance around the room).