Move Ahead With One of Our Day Retreats

By Paul Roberts

I was in on a conversation between Carol and our friends Doris Fleming and Donna Stone earlier today that stuck in my mind for the rest of the day, so…consider this blog post a plug for our Adult Day Retreats this summer, but in particular the final retreat of the summer, Creating Poetry.

I say I was “in on a conversation” because the question Doris asked was something like “How are sign ups for your day retreats coming?”, and I am not the one to answer that. I am not the one to even know when or what they are, unless I am looking directly at the calendar.

It was nice to find out that we have some people signed up for each one of the first three retreats: Creating Quiet, June 21st; Creating Stories, July 17th; and Creating an Art Experience, August 1st.

But when Carol said no one had signed up yet for Creating Poetry, August 17th, my inner artist child inside my head said “Ah, come on you guys! Poetry is fun! Poetry is cool! Poetry is beautiful!”

Isn’t it? The picture that opens this blog is the book of poetry I am reading from each morning. Doesn’t that look fun? 

Or is it intimidating? Weird? Bizarre? Hoity Toity? Elitist?

I was reminded of a conversation with my sister Laurie about her belief as a high school English teacher that every student can learn to like Shakespeare, even the student who is going to be digging ditches for the rest of his life. Who are we as English teachers to try and decide for  someone “oh, they’ll never understand it, they’ll never like it.”

If you decide to join us for some poetry on August 17th, I promise that some of the poetry will, at times, make you laugh, or make you cry, some will be beautiful, or weird, or intimidating, and that will be just some of the poetry you write.

Carol did remind us that it is very early, and there is still time to sign up for any of our retreats. But think about joining us for that poetry one. I think it could be special. I think you could be special. 

                               ***************************************************************

Have you checked your calendar to see which Adult Day Retreat fits your schedule best? We hope to see you in the gardens here with us.
 To leave a comment on our blog, you can use Disqus.  It is easy to sign up.  You can use Google, Facebook, Twitter or your email.  There is no cost.  Just put in your name and email address and create a password.  Then confirm your account with the email they send you. Then you can use Disqus to comment on the blog.  We would love to hear your thoughts.