circles for women

on-line via zoom

  • "...of all the things I have done over the last year to try to find balance and connection during the pandemic, our Writing Circle has been the greatest consistent gift! Thank you so much for giving us all this time and sacred guidance as we reach into our hearts to make new maps together."
  • "...A safe and sacred circle where women can speak the truth, create, and come to know their hidden talents. There is some kind of magic that happens in these circles. They are life changing."
  • "These workshops are church, therapy and a party all at once...I am so full of gratitude for Dawn and all you ladies—for the transformative experience of holding sacred space in writing circles to cultivate voices and tell stories."

Writing from Center: A thursday morning writing devotion

with Dawn Thompson via Zoom
Dates: January 11th - March 14th 2024Time: 10:00am-12:15pmCost: $300
“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 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 and those who identify as female of all ages and backgrounds. For more information or to sign up please contact Dawn at: dawnrenethompson@gmail.com or 503.568.6145. Image: mymind/Unsplash

Poetic PLAY A First & THird Monday Morning WRiting Devotion

with Dawn Thompson via Zoom
Dates: 1st & 3rd Monday mornings from March to May, 3/4, 3/18, 4/1, 4/15, 5/6, 5/20 (6 weeks)Time: 10:00am-12:15pmCost: $200

Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that."

- Mary Oliver


We think we are not poets. We are carpenters, teachers, mothers, bakers, maybe even writers, but a poet? We forget that not only was poetry our first language - Goo Goo Gaa Gaa Up Now Yes Yes Heee - but that poetry is as natural to us as breathing. We were born to make music and to paint pictures with our words. Our hearts and our world are in dire need of poetry. Poetry opens a door to peace. Poetry frees us. It changes how we engage with life and deepens all of our writing. In this workshop, by experimenting with the basic ingredients of all poems, we'll sculpt word combinations in new ways in order to get to the heart and bones of an ordinary moment, an extraordinary story. We'll also read the work of a variety of poets as doorways into our own writing. No previous poetry experience necessary. This circle offers space for creative expression for women and those who identify as female of all ages and backgrounds. For more information or to sign up please contact Dawn at: dawnrenethompson@gmail.com or 503.568.6145. Flower photographs by Bija Gutoff