Over this past week I was a co-leader of a 3 day workshop in Naples. \u00a0The program included a phenomenal group of women and my co-facilitator was a phenomenal teacher. \u00a0I even got many “take-aways,” a gift I hadn’t expected, actually. \u00a0Since both Jill (Kelly) and I teach writing groups, I had made an assumption that “my way” was a very good way, maybe the best way. \u00a0However, doing a \u00a0few of her exercises intertwined with a few of mine made the program richer in every way, for us and for the participants.<\/p>\n
The main point of this is that I got another dose of reality, the positive side of reality. \u00a0There is still more to learn which means life is far from over. \u00a0No resting on my laurels, \u00a0just yet. \u00a0I teach a writing workshop in Augusta, MO every September, and have for a dozen years. \u00a0(See the event section of this website if interested.) \u00a0I know, now, that I will incorporate some of the exercises that Jill had all of us do this week. \u00a0They expanded the women’s capacity to see themselves. \u00a0They encouraged a deeper commitment to the creative process. \u00a0And they helped us all realize that we could do those very things we came to the workshop unsure of. \u00a0That’s always the sign of a good workshop, in my view.<\/p>\n
The average age in the workshop was probably 55. \u00a0Certainly there were a handful of women in their 40’s. However, there were some in their mid to late 70’s. \u00a0Even a couple in their 80’s. \u00a0And the exciting thing is that people everywhere are discovering that age doesn’t have to restrict us. \u00a0Women and men are traveling longer, taking classes, teaching classes, exploring the benefits of the internet and so much more. \u00a0How exciting I find it to go into the Apple Store and see it filled with the aging population, people who are not about to simply sit down and say life is done.<\/p>\n
I look at these “oldsters” as the role models that my elders didn’t have. \u00a0Even though my mother was still interested in sports and shopping well into her 80’s, she’d not have been talked into taking a writing class. \u00a0It would have seemed beyond her capacity for expression. \u00a0She had not gone to college and she too often doubted her intellect. \u00a0I think that was the result of marriage to a man who had never really appreciated her capabilities and that was because he didn’t really appreciate his own. \u00a0We can’t give to others what we fail to see in ourselves.<\/p>\n
I feel lucky that I am still growing and learning and sharing with others that which I know and admitting all that I don’t know too. \u00a0Without the honesty of revealing both, I cannot give to the world all that I have been born to share. \u00a0The same is true for you.<\/p>\n
Praise be to God.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over this past week I was a co-leader of a 3 day workshop in Naples. \u00a0The program included a phenomenal group of women and my co-facilitator was a phenomenal teacher. \u00a0I even got many “take-aways,” a gift I hadn’t expected, actually. \u00a0Since both Jill (Kelly) and I teach writing groups, I had made an assumption […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections-in-the-mirror-you-and-yourself"],"yoast_head":"\n