Creative Workshops 2009
July Writing Newsletter
Re-story Life and Work
The dance
along the artery /The circulation of the lymph/ Are figured in the drift of
stars (T S Eliot)
Stop Press: calling KZN…
Rekindling the Fire: A Retreat to revive our Creativity and Imagination (see below)
….
Dear writer, storyteller,
reader, traveller, lover of words and images, companion of silence
This month I think of
activities in stillness that bring us into the presence of ourselves and into
the present. Writing belongs to such a family.
To replace summer swimming
in the ocean, I have taken to yoga inspired by friends and yoga teachers I have
been mentoring. The poetry of yoga? The yoga of poetry? I find an affinity to
poetry in the balance, poise, rhythm, and connection of limb to muscle to joint
to air. For words connect, stretch into sentences as a line turns round and
doubles into the next:
Falling in love in a Yoga Class
the only hamstrung
male in the class,
a old creaking oak
among willows,
I have fallen among
a troupe of acrobats.
looselimbed loslyf
the women raise a hand
north past ear island
in line with shoulder
to salute sun
while they slide the other
down south to shinland.
I tendon tense,
point my palm
as far as the door.
its companion reaches
just below kneeland kopje
before it runs out of stretch.
their angles are acute,
mine obtuse.
six hundred and something
muscles rise Atlantis like
from the forgotten deep.
mine are drum skin,
lactic acid, theirs spandex.
they are like the dolls with
elastic threaded limbs
so you can turn the
legs and arms backwards.
our teacher is a reincarnated
rubber tree snake, swimming
through the S bend in a river
flowing though
body lithe in line
she raises her heel
to salute the moon,
names the asanas
evoking
levitation, lotus pose,
tucked toe yogis,
incense air
and snake charmers.
Eve’s dance with
snake energy dazzles
this Adam, gritting teeth
in a rib stretch locust pose,
trying to prevent the fall,
in awe of the double
jointedness of these women
and their pelvic and wrist swivel.
after another - what sounds
like trickyasana -
we come to stillness
hands together. bow.
this pose comes easy.
body tingles.
glands suffuse,
hormones grin.
I fall over in love
with the grace
of women’s joints and
my limb limitation.
in supple Namaste
we enter Nirvana.
Dorian’s July/Aug Storyshops/
Writeshops
[If you want
any of these in your area speak speak.
1.
Rekindling the Fire: A Retreat to revive our Creativity and Imagination
4-5 July 2009
I know that there is room in me
for a second huge and timeless life (Rilke)
In this retreat we enter the world of story to recover
our creativity, zest, energy and passion. We search for a myth to sustain and
transform us as we ask, the poet T S Eliot’s question, “Where is the
life we have lost in living?” We consider how attention to life stories and
fiction, so rich in image, symbol and rhythm, can create a more abundant life.
The workshop uses collage work, journaling, stories, visualisation, observation
and other modalities to inspire us. Beginners are welcome.
There will be time to meditate in the room with a fig tree built into the wall,
reflect, observe birds and walk the labyrinth.
Cost
includes 2 nights accommodation R600 plus surcharge R120-00 and is open to non-
residents at R300 plus R120-00 surcharge. I work on a dharma basis for the
course .i.e. the workshop is a gift and if they wish, participants offer a
donation in return
8 people needed to make the retreat
viable.
bookings
Elaine Whitwam whitbird@venturenet.co.za
039 684 6745 082 337 7702
2. Somerset West
Living the Questions Now : A Six Session
Writing Course R450 includes notes
Wed 8 July (6,15 - 8.15 pm) and then 2nd Wed of every month
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart
and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that
are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot
be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to
live everything. Live the questions now. (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet)
What are the great questions
of our lives? In this course we mediate on, consider and explore these questions
though reading, writing and story telling.
Contact me for venue – we
meet in one of our homes.
3. Somerset West
Writing your Life Story
Sat 11 July 09.30 – 13.00
a U3A (University of the Third Age)
workshop – free to U3A members. Elders teaching elders. Why not join up?
Beginners are welcome Bring writing materials and R10
at the home of Jeanine and Dermot Knight 11
Rue de Havre ( off Irene)
4.
Sun 12 July 10.00 - 16.00 R450
Journaling Workshop
Make your life a work of art
[Embrace
Your Past, Create Your future, Live Life Now through Narrative Play
with Dorian
Haarhoff and Pauline van Zyl
Is there not a certain satisfaction that natural limits are set to the life of
the individual,
so that at its conclusion it may appear as a work of
art? (Albert Einstein)
Pauline will guide you to go within and find the true
authentic you, while Dorian will guide you through your imagination and
creativity to find the words to tell your story.
Pauline van Zyl who will join me is a facilitator who
studied the arts of Reiki, Crystals, Metaphysical Science, Metaphysical Life
Coaching, AD/HD Life Coaching through VEMISA, Living ADDventure and other
institutions. Passionate about life and grateful for the adventure this journey
brings about.
Venue: contact Pauline Bookings: Pauline 072 220
6204, paulinem1@vodamail.co.za
5.
Café Table Conversations for Coaches
Story telling and Story Listening R80
15 July 6.30 to 9.30pm
With Graham Williams and Dorian,
co-authors of The Halo and the Noose, The Power of Story-listening
and Story-telling in Business Life.
Take this opportunity to understand
the depth of impact that story-telling has on coaching effectiveness. Everybody
welcome
Contact Angela Franzoso 021 7150525 073 220 3445 info@thecoachingcentre.co.za
6. Rooi Els /
Living the Questions Now. An Evening of
Story-telling and Poetry R50(R80 a couple)
Sat 25 July (19.00 -) a soup, bread,
cheese fire and wine evening
Live the questions now. Perhaps then you will
gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the
answer (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet))
What are the great questions
of our lives? We mediate on, consider and explore these questions though poetry
and story telling.
Contact Evette Weyers emoyeni@mhws.co.za 028
273 8483
7. Pietermartzburg
Thurs 30 July 17.30 -21.00
Nasrudin, Oom Schalk and the Rabbi: The Joy of Stories R80
Why stories? Because stories are origins and origins are
places that we walk out from. Because stories have many feet and travel several
roads at once... because the story
conjures the invisible. (Deena Metzger)
Stories start a conversation with ourselves
and with our community. The evening’s
focus is on the joy of stories
from different traditions.. Listening to them,.. playing with them… laying our
story down beside them,.
an interactive evening find the
story-teller within
contact Ronel Wood
ronel@ovation.co.za 033 342 2338
8. Ixopo Zen Pen:
Writing and Meditation
31 July - 2 Aug – at
Buddhist Retreat Centre. brcixopo@futurenet.co.za 039 834 1863
“Looking at your image in a clear stream, you answer
the question by your very presence.” In this workshop we explore the connection between writing and
meditation. We write and meditate on the many changes and transformations we
experience as we journey along the river of our lives. We consider how
creativity steadies the boat and how writing helps us dip the oars into dark
water so we may navigate the river safely.
8.
Rekindling the Fire An Evening to revive our Creativity, Imagination
and Love of Stories R150
Thurs 6 Aug 2009 Time: 18.30 - 21.00
I know that there is room in me
for a second huge and timeless life (Rilke)
During this interactive evening we enter the world of
story to recover our creativity, zest, energy and passion. We allow the
imagination to lead our search for a myth to sustain and transform us. We
consider how attention to life stories and fiction, so rich in image, symbol
and rhythm, can release us from traps create a more abundant life.
therapists, artists, spiritual seekers. coaches, teachers
magicians, tricksters, ecologists
gardeners, come and raise your story
IQ.
Venue: in
Contact: Tony Schnell 084 400 1317 eyethu1@telkomsa.net
Ongoing
activities (some repeat info)
Development Work
Last year the Storywell team I co-ordinate completed a
UNICEF project training caregivers who look after vulnerable children in story
telling and listening. Written this up
as a resource book (see site for details)
Writer in Residence
In late July I will enjoy another 3 day spell at
Corporate Work
Story work in organisational development is growing. Stories
shape our world of work – leadership, training, mergers, marketing, product
development, client services, strategic planning. Stories influence
organisations (the larger body) as much as they do individuals (the smaller
body). Unconscious stories can sabotage an organisation. Stories made conscious
can save it. When employees’ stories are heard and received, they feel valued as an asset and
are more present at work. They feel a sense of belonging and begin to use
their initiative.
Speaking Engagements
“Be still when you have nothing to say but when
genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.” (D. H. Lawrence) I’m building
up this aspect of my work.
Anywhere: Winter Stories at Home
This season I will be a storying for groups
of friends…an evening, wine, cheese, breads and tales for the telling. Any
rhyme or reason – birthdays, TV fatigue, the art of conversation, sommer.
Gather a group for Winter. This month a
sixtieth birthday.
Mentoring
Walk with me in words. You
put on one shoe, I wear the other. Memoirs, mindfulness adventures, work in the
word… genres tumbling out of folk on the one-on-one path. Such a richness of
story here.
5-
Email Courses: Writer’s/ Poet’s Voice Course –
one-on-one tuition
Some folks respond to
structure, assignments… if so, ask and it shall be negotiated. Here is one
possibility: Do you
love reading and writing? This one-on-one apprenticeship aims to take you
further up the writing mountain and offer you a deeper engagement with your
craft. This course is structured in the nature of an ongoing conversation with
a few chosen writers or poets, (ancestral or alive) with me and with yourself.
I encourage you to keep a journal to record your observations and reflections.
CD/ Books
More Stories: Stories from
announcing announcing a 2nd CD. Some fifty plus stories
to entertain, tease you, stimulate creativity, prompt discussion… out mid June
… advance orders at R100 plus postage
The Halo and the Noose, the Power of story-telling and
story listening in Business Life R180
Want to source a 100 plus stories? co-written with Graham
Williams (Graysonian Press). We run corporate story workshops based on our
book. Bruce
Copley
leading aaha
educator, sound journey man writes:
The stories are delightful. I love
the skilful way in which you explain and illustrate the relevance and
connection of stories to every sphere of our short earth walk. Congratulations
for a fine and profound gift that will I have no doubt, weave its magic. I
regard as one of the most delightful and totally captivating reads of my life. (bruce@aahalearning.com)
For orders: from the authors
or Graysonian Press Inspirational
books that change the world www.graysonian.com +27 11 6462956 or
0836101113
Friends at Work and Play
Mon eves at 5pm or 7pm, please
indicate preference
Enhance personal growth and honour
your soul through creative techniques. Reconnect with your imaginative
side and enrich your life.
Aneta is a clinical psychologist and
hypnotherapist, has integrated years of experience as a therapist and life in
other countries with ancient ways of being in this world.
Aneta
082 686 8118 or 021 8555415 aneta.shaw@vodamail.co.za
Holistic wealth creation courses with the author of
Money Alchemy & Money Well
(Penguin). Kiki offers weekend intensives between July and Oct, as well as
monthly Wealth-Being mornings. Kiki
writes “I work with money as metaphor for transformation and use writing,
drawing, claywork, ceremony, ritual, symbol and my own energetic transmutations
to facilitate a shift in the area of wealth.”
Kiki Theo ktheo@icon.co.za
www.moneyalchemy.com
Elma Pollard
You might like to send a contribution to the Green Arts page?
Elma elma@thegreentimes.co.za 084 868 2908 for orders, inspiration,
contributions, conversations, support.
Maggie, author
of Jade and the Serpent’s Circle, a teenage novel on reverse evolution
(that I mentored) has just launched a writers’ forum. Innovative… energetic…
“IZIZA encourages everybody with an
aptitude for writing with an emphasis on starting something and following it
through. We have a For Kids By Kids range that encourages children to
support each other in their writing quest. IZIZA also supports adult authors on
their writing journey to publish their books. Visit our writing forum for
children For Kids By Kids and for adult writers. “
Maggie maggief@iziza.co.za +27 83 6 222 222
fax 086 658 3336 www.iziza.co.za
Writer-sites and News (see site news on my web. see new web address
dorianhaarhoff.com The longer old one is linked to it.
May your activities and silences
bring you into the presence of words.
Dorian
PS Thank you to all those who pass on this letter.
Dr Dorian Haarhoff
021 855 3937 / 082 873 6802/ fax 086 511 4751
http://dorianhaarhoffwriter.homestead.com
and dorianhaarhoff.com