 current offerings

We invite you to join us in creative community as we enter into the autumn season. This weekly “mini retreat” series offers you the chance to step away from the demands of daily life and to connect more deeply with your own inner points of light as we move towards the winter solstice and the darker time of the year. Each weekly session is an invitation, through writing and art, to cultivate a personal cartography of hope and resilience through engaging in the creative process. Like the stars in the night sky, we will illuminate our internal landscapes through a variety of mixed media techniques and materials including painting, drawing, collage, mask making, image transfer, and sculpture. This weekly retreat series offers you a chance to kindle your creative spark and cultivate new ways of enriching your imagination while nourishing yourself in the supportive, uplifting company of other women.
This program offers space for creative expression for women and those who identify as female of all ages and backgrounds. No writing or art experience is necessary. All art materials, as well as snacks and tea, will be provided.

Registration: For more information or if you would like to register for this program, please visit FamilyHeirloomArts or contact Lisa at: Lisa@FamilyHeirloomArts.com or at 503.347.1391. Due to the limited number of participants we can accommodate, early registration is recommended. 

Art by Margaret Hartsook

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”Howard Thurman

As humans, it can be easy to forget that we too are part of the natural world, in constant kinship with the trees, streams, stones and birds. At times when we feel distanced from our true nature, we can return to our center by connecting with our elemental self, which dwells at the intersection of the natural environment and the lush living world of our own inner landscape. How does the fiery energy within us wish to express itself? What happens when we practice flowing like water? What are the stories the rocks and mountains of our inner history wish to tell and how can these stories guide us? Through writing and altar making, utilizing painting, drawing, collage, and natural materials from the magnificent Oregon forest, you’ll have the chance to connect with your elemental self this fall. This soulful and inspiring day in the beauty of the natural world also offers you a chance to deeply nourish yourself with a delicious lunch, a beautiful retreat setting and the supportive, uplifting company of other women. 
This retreat offers space for creative expression for women and those who identify as female of all ages and backgrounds. No writing or art experience is necessary.
This retreat includes lunch prepared by a professional chef who specializes in using fresh, local produce to create meals that are truly culinary works of art.
For more information or if you have questions about the retreat, please contact Dawn at: dawnrenethompson@gmail.com or 503.568.6145. 

To Register for this Retreat, click here
Click here to learn more about Touchstone Retreats Click here to find out more about Dawn & Lisa

Touchstone Health & Safety Policy • As of now, at the retreat, wearing face coverings while indoors will be optional. If this requirement changes, participants will be notified ahead of time. • We ask that all retreat participants do a self-evaluation before coming to the retreat and that they remain at home if they have any symptoms.We will continue to monitor guidance from the national Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) regarding best practices for indoor gatherings and we will update our policies accordingly.
Touchstone Retreats Cancellation Policy (for full day retreats)Payment is fully refundable with one month’s cancellation notice. Participants will be charged for 25% of the total program fee with less than a month’s notice up to 14 days prior to the retreat. No refund is possible with less than a 14-day cancellation notice. Family emergency situations will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. If you have a COVID related situation arise and you need to cancel please contact Dawn. 
Art by Lisa Kagan, Sitka 2 Mixed Media

“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”

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 monthly in-person 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 and those who identify as female of all ages and backgrounds.   Registration: For more information or if you would like to register for this program, please contact Dawn at:  dawnrenethompson@gmail.com or 503.568.6145. 

Image: mymind/Unsplash

current offerings

GEOGRAPHY OF THE WILD HEART: Mapping our Inner Constellations

The Elemental Self: finding center through writing and altar making

writing from center: A second Monday of the month Writing Devotion

503-568-6145 DawnReneThompson@gmail.com