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current offerings
VISION: A MONTHLY WEDNESDAY morning writing devotion
In-person this Fall with Dawn Thompson
Dates: 4 Wednesday Mornings: September 9, October 14, November 11 & December 9, 2026
Time: 10:00am-12:30pmCost: $190
Location: Kitty's in NE Portland
"...When women circle, they help heal each other through letting unspoken truths rise to the surface.
When women circle, they heal the planet with their trust, truth, laughter, tears, and vulnerability..."
~Excerpt from "When Women Circle" Collective Poem from VISION, Spring 2025
~Excerpt from "When Women Circle" Collective Poem from VISION, Spring 2025
As creatives living in an uncertain world, we all need space and time to gather in community to share our vision and our voice, to be heard and to listen.
In this monthly in-person four-part series, we will come together in sacred space to put our thoughts, feelings, stories, poems, imagination and wisdom onto the page. We will also have the opportunity to listen to other women's stories and to find ourselves in them. When we are deeply heard and honored, our writing and our unique voice become stronger, more honest. Our words become pathways to a better life and a better world.
No previous writing experience is necessary. This circle offers space for creative expression for women of all ages and backgrounds. All women are welcome, including cisgender, transgender, and those whose gender identity aligns with womanhood. For more information or to sign up please contact Dawn at: dawnrenethompson@gmail.com or 503.568.6145. Image: Photo by Trish Coffey
In this monthly in-person four-part series, we will come together in sacred space to put our thoughts, feelings, stories, poems, imagination and wisdom onto the page. We will also have the opportunity to listen to other women's stories and to find ourselves in them. When we are deeply heard and honored, our writing and our unique voice become stronger, more honest. Our words become pathways to a better life and a better world.
No previous writing experience is necessary. This circle offers space for creative expression for women of all ages and backgrounds. All women are welcome, including cisgender, transgender, and those whose gender identity aligns with womanhood. For more information or to sign up please contact Dawn at: dawnrenethompson@gmail.com or 503.568.6145. Image: Photo by Trish Coffey
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Writing from Center: A thursday morning writing devotion
with Dawn Thompson via Zoom
Dates: September 10-November 19, skipping October 15 (10 weeks)
Time: 10:00am-12:15pmCost: $350
"Thank you for creating this sacred pathway for our sharing, as women, as glowing stars, as wild writers in the wilderness of hope."
~Lynn Sherman, Writing from Center Participant
“The magic of writing practice is you start where you are – observing, remembering, listening – and this simple act of being where you are leads, inevitably, to a place you didn’t know you needed to go to, but in following the thread you go a little deeper into understanding.”
~Erin Lee Gafill, “Drinking from a Cold Spring: A Little Book of Hope”
~Erin Lee Gafill, “Drinking from a Cold Spring: A Little Book of Hope”
These days, we all long for connection. Connection with our deeper self and connection with one another. Devoting yourself to a writing practice is a powerful way to foster connection with the larger human story, with your personal stories and with your capacity for creation, vision and inner peace.
The page is a room of your own where you can listen for parts of yourself that are calling, where you have space to contemplate your lived experience and where you can access the compass of your poetic heart.
In this weekly on-line workshop, inspiring prompts are provided as doorways into the writing. These prompts invite your critical mind to step aside in order to allow the great wisdom of your authentic voice and your imagination to rise to the surface.
When you write in community and have the opportunity to listen to other women's stories, you enter the encouraging realm of our shared humanity. You gather essential tools as a writer and receive the medicine of being deeply heard. In community, your writing becomes stronger, more honest, full of vision and heart.
No previous writing experience is necessary. This circle offers space for creative expression for women of all ages and backgrounds. All women are welcome, including cisgender, transgender, and those whose gender identity aligns with womanhood. For more information or to sign up please contact Dawn at: dawnrenethompson@gmail.com or 503.568.6145. Image: mymind/Unsplash
The page is a room of your own where you can listen for parts of yourself that are calling, where you have space to contemplate your lived experience and where you can access the compass of your poetic heart.
In this weekly on-line workshop, inspiring prompts are provided as doorways into the writing. These prompts invite your critical mind to step aside in order to allow the great wisdom of your authentic voice and your imagination to rise to the surface.
When you write in community and have the opportunity to listen to other women's stories, you enter the encouraging realm of our shared humanity. You gather essential tools as a writer and receive the medicine of being deeply heard. In community, your writing becomes stronger, more honest, full of vision and heart.
No previous writing experience is necessary. This circle offers space for creative expression for women of all ages and backgrounds. All women are welcome, including cisgender, transgender, and those whose gender identity aligns with womanhood. For more information or to sign up please contact Dawn at: dawnrenethompson@gmail.com or 503.568.6145. Image: mymind/Unsplash
creative alchemy ~ poetry, art & community fALL 2026
A 10-week creative retreat series
with Lisa Kagan & Margaret Hartsook
“At it's essence, art is an alchemical process.
Alchemy is a process of transformation.”
~ Julia Cameron
Dates & Time:
Fall 2026:
Mondays 6:30pm-9pm
September 28, October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2, 9, 16, 30, December 7
(skipping 11/23 during Thanksgiving week)
Location:
Studio of the Imagination at Margaret’s home in SE Portland, the Creston neighborhood.
This program offers space for creative expression for women of all ages and backgrounds. All women are welcome, including cisgender, transgender, and those whose gender identity aligns with womanhood. No writing or art experience is necessary. All art materials, as well as snacks and drinks, will be provided.
To find out more about this retreat series and to register:
click here
Butterfly Moon, Mixed Media by Margaret Hartsook
Nourish ~ Inspiring Creativity & connection, FALL 2026
A weekly writing and art mini retreat series
with Lisa Kagan
“This time together in our weekly retreat sessions has helped me reconnect with the part of myself longing to create.
It has been confirmation that stepping away from home and having a loving structure to come to each week works well for me.
I love the energy of creating together, the consistent ritual of our gatherings, and the graceful space holding.”
~ Touchstone Retreats Participant
Dates & Time:
Thursdays 10am-12:30pm in October & November 2026
Six sessions: October 8, 15, 22 & November 5, 12, 19
(Skipping October 29)
Location:
Family Heirloom Arts Studio in SE Portland, the Woodstock neighborhood.
Program Fee: $330Art Materials Fee: $30Total fee: $360
This program offers space for creative expression for women of all ages and backgrounds. All women are welcome, including cisgender, transgender, and those whose gender identity aligns with womanhood.
No writing or art experience is necessary.
All art materials, as well as snacks and drinks, will be provided.
To find out more about this retreat series and to register: click here Equalibrium, Mixed Media by Lisa Kagan
To find out more about this retreat series and to register: click here Equalibrium, Mixed Media by Lisa Kagan
sanctuary: A FREE personal Monthly writing salon
with Dawn Thompson via Zoom
The first Wednesday of the month
from Noon-1:00pm
Next Session:
October 2026 - May 2027
Sign up any month
"I have a sense of these buried lives striving to come out through me to express themselves."
~Marge Piercy
Reserve a free writing date
with yourself
each month...
There is always a reason not to write. Always 101 other things that need to be done. We think about that story we have wanted to complete for years, the novel we wish we could start, the poems we want to re-vision, the memoir we hope someday to pass on. And somehow everything else seems to come first. The truth is creatives need time, space and, yes, silence, which for many of us are in short supply.
Sanctuary is meant as a monthly love offering from me to you, a writing date with the Self where you are given a window to focus on whatever writing project you are working on. You can also use this time simply to write. After a welcome centering poem we will have 45-50 minutes to write at our own pace on our own work in a structured and sacred container of community. We will gather back onto the screen at the end of each session to share a few lines we have written with the circle as a way to close our time together.
While this space is meant as a room of our own, it is also an alchemical vessel of collective creativity. You will look up and see fellow women writers involved with their own craft, in their own spaces, and feel the solidarity and inspiration of a writing community.
This circle offers space for creative expression for women of all ages and backgrounds. All women are welcome, including cisgender, transgender, and those whose gender identity aligns with womanhood.
To sign up each month and receive our zoom link please contact Dawn prior to each session at: dawnrenethompson@gmail.com or 503.568.6145.
Images:
Feather - Melody Noraas
Candle - Hans Vivek/Unsplash