Writing Into the New Year: A Contemplative Writing Weekend
With Anne A. Simpkinson
January 10 - 12, 2025
Single $530, Double $490
(includes an ensuite bathroom and all meals from Friday dinner through Sunday breakfast)
Commuter $325
(includes Friday dinner, Saturday lunch & dinner)
The Mercy For All Scholarship provides support for those experiencing financial challenges.
➔ Learn more and apply here.
Stories give shape to the human experience
and touch us in our innermost places.
They pick us up right where we are and
leave us somewhere else – changed, transformed,
more awake, alive and aware.
- Sara Mackenzie, author
About this offering
Life provides us with countless stories. Stories of love, loss, grief, and courage; stories of unexpected life changes, family relationships, spiritual journeys, small miracles, and experiences in nature. Writing demands attentiveness, honesty, courage, and a commitment to engage with a creative process that pulls us into the unknown where we are often surprised at what surfaces. It’s a journey of discovery.
This retreat will blend periods of Centering Prayer, personal writing time, talks, and creativity exercises. There will be time to read, walk the grounds, or simply gaze out at the waters of Long Island Sound. Come to work on a current project, begin stories long thought about, or immerse yourself in silence in order to discover what needs to be voiced. Come to be still and know …
About the presenter
Anne A. Simpkinson is an award-winning journalist, editor, and story midwife. She co-authored Soul Work: A Field Guide for Spiritual Seekers and two anthologies, Sacred Stories and Nourishing the Soul. When living in New York City, she rode the media transformation from websites to digital communications in her positions with Beliefnet.com, Prevention magazine, WeightWatchers.com, and Guideposts. She also served as Communications Director for Mercy by the Sea for several years. Anne has been practicing Centering Prayer (CP) since 1996. She was co-coordinator of Contemplative Outreach in New York for three years, is a long-time Centering Prayer group facilitator, and leads contemplative prayer and writing retreats in Massachusetts and Connecticut.