Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Ramona Retreat for Vision Collages



This weekend some friends and I rented this guest house in Ramona, Kansas to have a retreat. We spent our time working on the process described in "Visioning" by Lucia Capacchione.

Teresa, Peggy and I heard her speak at a "Food for Thought" event four years ago this month, and have wanted to do this since. It's hard to believe it took four years. There's a lesson in that, alone.



There were six of us. Starting in the back, that's Andrea, me, Cynthia and Susan. In front are Peggy and Teresa.

This is a multi-stage process. The heart of it is journaling and collaging.

You start with a "focus statement" that is the guiding part of your collage - what you want. Then you hunt for pictures from magazines...








We organized them and glued them...





Then we journalled about our finished projects...



Central to this process is the focus statement on which you base your collage. Each of our finished projects were distinctly different. I asked the group and everyone agreed that I could share them with you.

Susan's focus was, "Leading a life with more energy."





Cynthia's was, "Living a passionate life."





Andrea's was, "What financial security looks like?"





Patsy's focus was, "Freedom and inspiration to create and appreciate beauty."





Peggy's focus was, "Experiences I'd like to have" and morphed into "Seek knowledge"





Teresa's focus was, "Live life in movement and quiet contemplation."



It was an inspirational weekend. We brought food to share and just munched as we worked. Saturday evening some were done before the others and so they cooked our spaghetti dinner. It worked out perfectly.

This was a great spot for it. The house has five bedrooms, one with two beds in it, so we were able to spread out a bit and then come together to work on our projects. The kitchen has everything you need - from a microwave to a full sized fridge and stove.



I definitely recommend Cousin's Corner, the guest house. It's run by two sisters from California, who have roots in Ramona, and ended up coming to Kansas through a visioning process of their own.

It was a great way to spend time with friends. I can't wait to do something like this again. Not sure what we should do next, but I know there's something just waiting to be discovered.

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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more.

Hail in Hutchinson



Just the other day I was thinking, "Geez, I've still got to deal with the roof." I had hail damage last year and after dealing with all the insurance stuff it was too late in the year to get it done. Then I thought, "Hmmm... I think I'll just wait until after hail season this year before I get it repaired." Tonight that seems like a good decision.

This is my front walkway, early on. I've rarely seen hail completely cover the ground, but I have tonight. My neighbor's driveway was white.



However, I don't think this probably did much damage. I didn't see anything larger than pea sized, but there was a lot of it. A Street looked like it had snow on it.

________________
Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more.