Love

The wedding invitation was on gray paper with light gray engravings and indicated the wedding would be in the garden at two, with reception and dancing to follow at a nearby pavilion. The program included the lyrics by Beirut “And I will love to see that day that day is mine when she will marry me outside with the willow trees.” The wedding helped me remember how important it is to be true and let things go in a marriage. Love is what matters.

New Store on Gordon Square

Check out my article on Ohio Knitting Mills, a love letter to Cleveland and its garment district past. 

Year-End Wrap-Up 2010

I wrapped up a year of writing for Yahoo! Local and Cool Cleveland with my Year-End Wrap-Up, my own love letter to Cleveland. 

Living Each Day as a Prayer

Energy and enchantment have been my mantra over the last few weeks as I’ve improved my home to be more of a retreat, planned out my year of writing and retreats, and thought about how I want to spend vacation this year. I find myself seeking repose, and I did so with three books, two by local authors Sarah Willis and Thrity Umrigar (Some Things That Stay and The Weight of Heaven) and the other by Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat Pray Love. My spirit feels renewed in all aspects of my life, including my legal work, which can be creative as well.

Day by day, I look for ways to improve how I live and work. I refresh with walks, yoga, meditation, and worship, and I feel God residing within me and guiding my quest. At last year’s Artist’s Way Retreat with Wendy Fedan, I bought a Tibetan bowl that makes the sound of the ancient “Om,” and I committed to living each day as a prayer. I hold onto that as much as I can, but like in meditation, I lose focus and come back to it and I try not to judge my indiscretions.

This Year's Events to Ignite Your Possibilities

I'm excited to participate and lead five different events this year, my fourth year of Igniting Possibilities events.  I continue to co-host an Artist's Way retreat with Joan Barris at the Idlewyld and am hosting my usual Word Lovers weekends, and in addition to a winter Connecting to the Authentic Self, I'm also leading a spring memoir program. Here's a quick summary:

Eat, Pray, Love, a Connecting with the Authentic Self Retreat, February 19 from noon until 4, at North Olmsted United Methodist Church. The event begins with eating lunch and being thankful, proceeds to creation of beauty through our gifts, moves to the spirit and being close to God, and ends with finding where love resides in our lives.

Creating Fiction and Publishing Your Work, a Word Lovers Retreat, April 1-3 at the Idlewyld Bed and Breakfast in historic Lakeside, Ohio. Novelist Les Roberts will join us for a weekend of creating good stories, critique work, and trouble-shooting. In addition to Les' fiction workshop, we'll look at preparing for publication and publication resources and markets.

Stories of Our Lives, a Connecting with the Authentic Self Retreat, May 21 at North Olmsted United Methodist Church. During this mini-retreat, we’ll share stories of our lives in the oral tradition, do some journaling to explore life themes, and start to tell our stories in written memoir.

Sharing Our Gifts (Artist’s Way) Retreat, October 14-16, co-hosted with Joan Barris, Idlewyld Bed and Breakfast in historic Lakeside, Ohio, a women’s weekend of sharing creativity, relaxing, and experiencing exuberant joy.

A Word Lovers Food and Wine Weekend, November 4-6, Idlewyld Bed and Breakfast in historic Lakeside, Ohio, a weekend of winery tours and tastings and creating beautiful food together with writing sessions on non-fiction books and establishing immediacy through description.

Send me an e-mail if you'd like more information on any of these programs.  Until we meet again, live deeply

Claudia