The Bishop’s Ranch in Healdsburg, California
Sunday, October 3 - Friday, October 8, 2010

When everybody arrives on Sunday, we will gather for a glass of wine before dinner and then head over to the ranch’s community dining room where we will take all our meals. At the Bishop’s Ranch, meals are a separate ministry. If you remember nothing else, you will remember the food. After dinner, we’ll return to the ranch house and gather in the living room to begin the process of getting to know each other. Then, to bed for a good night’s sleep.

This will be the second seminar where the perameters have been stretched to accomodate many non-writers who use their journals as a way to anchor them in their lives.  For the next five mornings, we will convene in the ranch house after breakfast for our writing seminar, which will focus upon the ways in which keeping a journal can illuminate and guide one's life.  Participants will be asked to keep a daily journal, if only for the five days they are here. 

We will begin each seminar session by going around the table so that those who wish to do so can read aloud from their previous day's entry.  Then I will take a particular topic - such as "tender attention" or "cultivating the reflective eye"  and give examples to guide your own attention and eye in a productive way. 

Unlike previous years, the morning session will conclude well before lunch.  The painters in the group are always eager to set up their easels.  The writers  are free to write, relax, or explore the ranch’s gardens, chapel, and numerous well-mowed trails on the surrounding property.